View source for Social:Turkish language

{{Short description|Turkic language of the Turkish people}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Turkish
| nativename       = {{lang|tr|Türkçe}} (noun, adverb) <br/> {{lang|tr|Türk dili}} (noun)
| pronunciation    = {{lang|tr|Türkçe}}: {{IPA-tr|ˈtyɾctʃe||Turkce.ogg}} <br/> {{lang|tr|Türk dili}}: {{IPA-tr|ˈtyɾc ˈdili|}}
| states           = {{Plainlist|
* [[Place:Turkey|Turkey]] (official) 
* [[Place:Northern Cyprus|Northern Cyprus]] (official)
* [[Place:Cyprus|Cyprus]] (official)
* [[Place:Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan]] 
* Iraq 
* [[Place:Syria|Syria]] 
* [[Place:Lebanon|Lebanon]] 
* Greece 
* Bulgaria 
* Romania
* Kosovo 
* North Macedonia 
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
}}
| region           = [[Earth:Anatolia|Anatolia]], [[Place:Balkans|Balkans]], [[Place:Cyprus#Geography|Cyprus]], [[Place:Mesopotamia|Mesopotamia]], [[Place:Levant|Levant]], [[Place:Transcaucasia|Transcaucasia]]
| ethnicity        = Turks
| speakers         = [[Social:First language|L1]]: {{sigfig|84.010500|2}} million
| date             = 2018
| ref              = e26
| speakers2        = L2: {{sigfig|6.017500|2}} million (2019)<ref name=e26/>
<br>Total: {{sigfig|90.028000|2}} million<ref name=e26/>
| speakers_label   = Speakers
| familycolor      = Altaic
| fam1             = [[Social:Turkic languages|Turkic]]
| fam2             = [[Social:Common Turkic languages|Common Turkic]]
| fam3             = [[Social:Oghuz languages|Oghuz]]
| fam4             = Western Oghuz
| ancestor         = [[Social:Old Anatolian Turkish|Old Anatolian Turkish]]
| ancestor2        = Ottoman Turkish
| stand1           = Istanbul Turkish
| dia1             = [[Social:Cypriot Turkish|Cypriot Turkish]]
| dia2             = Iraqi Turkmen
| dia3             = [[Social:Karamanli Turkish|Karamanli Turkish]]
| dia4             = Meskhetian Turkish<ref>{{citation|last=Karcı|first=Durmuş|year=2018|title=The Effects of Language Characters and Identity of Meskhetian Turkish in Kazakhstan|journal=Kesit Akademi Dergisi|volume=4|issue=13}}</ref>
| dia5             = [[Social:Rumelian Turkish|Rumelian Turkish]]
| dia6             = Syrian Turkish<ref>{{cite book |last=Behnstedt |first=Peter |year=2008 |chapter=Syria |title=Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics |editor1-last=Versteegh |editor1-first=Kees |editor2-last=Eid |editor2-first=Mushira |editor3-last=Elgibali |editor3-first=Alaa |editor4-last=Woidich |editor4-first=Manfred |editor5-last=Zaborski |editor5-first=Andrzej |volume=4|page=402|publisher=[[Company:Brill Publishers|Brill Publishers]] |isbn=978-90-04-14476-7}}</ref>
| script           = Latin ([[Social:Turkish alphabet|Turkish alphabet]])<br />Turkish Braille
| nation           = [[Place:Cyprus|Cyprus]]<br />[[Place:Northern Cyprus|Northern Cyprus]]<br />[[Place:Turkey|Turkey]]
| minority         = Bosnia and Herzegovina<ref>{{citation|year=2010|chapter=Bosnia and Herzegovina|title=The European Charter for Regional Or Minority Languages: Collected Texts|pages=107–108|publisher=Council of Europe|isbn=9789287166715}}</ref> <br/>Croatia<ref>{{citation|year=2012|chapter=The Croatian Language in the European Information Society|title=The Croatian Language in the Digital Age|editor1-last=Rehm|editor1-first=Georg|editor2-last=Uszkoreit|editor2-first=Hans|page=51|publisher=[[Company:Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]]|isbn=9783642308826}}</ref><ref name="Franceschini546">{{cite book|last=Franceschini|first=Rita|chapter=Italy and the Italian-Speaking Regions|editor-last=Fäcke|editor-first=Christiane|title=Manual of Language Acquisition|year=2014|quote=In Croatia, Albanian, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Czech, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Macedonian, Polish, Romanian, Romany, Rusyn, Russian, Montenegrin, Slovak, Slovenian, Serbian, Turkish, and Ukrainian are recognized (EACEA 2012, 18, 50s)|publisher=Walter de Gruyter GmbH|isbn=9783110394146|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zM_mBQAAQBAJ&q=Croatia+Albanian&pg=PA1|pages=546|access-date=2021-08-25|archive-date=2023-01-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115123306/https://books.google.com/books?id=zM_mBQAAQBAJ&q=Croatia+Albanian&pg=PA1|url-status=live}}</ref><br/>Greece<ref>{{citation |last1=Trudgill|first1=Peter|last2=Schreier|first2=Daniel|year=2006|chapter=Greece and Cyprus / Griechenland und Zypern|title=Sociolinguistics / Soziolinguistik|editor-last=Ulrich|editor-first=Ammon|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=3110199874|page=1886}}</ref><br/>Iraq{{efn|Turkish language is currently official in Kirkuk Governorate, Kifri and Tuz Khurmatu districts.<ref name=guclu>{{cite journal|url=https://www.meforum.org/1074/who-owns-kirkuk-the-turkoman-case|title=Who Owns Kirkuk? The Turkoman Case|last=Güçlü|first=Yücel|journal=Middle East Quarterly|year=2007|pages=79–86|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190910081912/https://www.meforum.org/1074/who-owns-kirkuk-the-turkoman-case |archive-date=2019-09-10|quote=Article 1 of the declaration stipulated that no law, regulation, or official action could interfere with the rights outlined for the minorities. Michael Scott is the regional manager of Finder Mifflin Scranton. Although Arabic became the official language of Iraq, Kurdish became a corollary official language in Sulaimaniya, and both Kurdish and Turkish became official languages in Kirkuk and Kifri.}}</ref> In addition to that, it is considered an educational language for Iraqi Turkmen by Kurdistan Region.}}<ref name=Johanson2021/><ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.milliyet.com.tr/amp/dunya/turkmenler-turkce-tabelalardan-memnun-1032324 | title=Türkmenler, Türkçe tabelalardan memnun – Son Dakika | date=24 December 2008 | access-date=2019-11-30 | archive-date=2020-07-09 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200709191206/https://www.milliyet.com.tr/amp/dunya/turkmenler-turkce-tabelalardan-memnun-1032324 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://unpo.org/article/538?id=538|title=Constitution of the Iraqi Kurdistan Region|date=2004-04-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200704072456/https://unpo.org/article/538?id=538 |archive-date=2020-07-04 }}</ref><br/>Kosovo{{efn|Turkish language is currently official in Gjilan, Mamusha, Mitrovica, [[Place:Prizren|Prizren]] and Vushtrri municipalities.<ref>{{cite web|title=Municipal language compliance in Kosovo|url=https://www.osce.org/kosovo/120010?download=true|publisher=OSCE Minsk Group|quote=Turkish language is currently official in Prizren and Mamuşa/Mamushë/Mamuša municipalities. In 2007 and 2008, the municipalities of Gjilan/Gnjilane, southern Mitrovicë/Mitrovica, Prishtinë/Priština and Vushtrri/Vučitrn also recognized Turkish as a language in official use.|access-date=2019-11-30|archive-date=2021-03-05|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210305035807/http://www.osce.org/kosovo/120010?download=true|url-status=live}}</ref>}}<ref name=Johanson2021>{{citation|author=Johanson, Lars|year=2021|title=Turkic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=huk9EAAAQBAJ&q=Turkish+is+the+largest+and+most+vigorous+Turkic+language%2C+spoken+by+over+80+million+people&pg=PT134|quote=Turkish is the largest and most vigorous Turkic language, spoken by over 80 million people, a third of the total number of Turkic-speakers... Turkish is a recognized regional minority language in North Macedonia, Kosovo, Romania, and Iraq.|publisher={{wipe|Cambridge University Press}}|isbn=9781009038218|access-date=2021-09-07|archive-date=2023-01-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115123307/https://books.google.com/books?id=huk9EAAAQBAJ&q=Turkish+is+the+largest+and+most+vigorous+Turkic+language%2C+spoken+by+over+80+million+people&pg=PT134|url-status=live}}</ref><br/>North Macedonia{{efn|Turkish language is currently official in Centar Zupa and Plasnica Municipality<ref>{{cite web|url=http://beinmacedonia.com/languages-spoken-in-macedonia-2/|title=Languages spoken in Macedonia – North Macedonia|url-status=live| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220127001049/http://beinmacedonia.com/languages-spoken-in-macedonia-2/ |archive-date=2022-01-27|quote=Turkish is co-official in Centar Zupa and Plasnica}}</ref>}}<ref name=Johanson2021/><br/>Romania<ref name=Johanson2021/><ref>{{citation|year=2010|chapter=Romania|title=The European Charter for Regional Or Minority Languages: Collected Texts|pages=135–136|publisher=Council of Europe|isbn=9789287166715}}</ref>
| iso1             = tr
| iso2             = tur
| iso3             = tur
| lingua           = part of [[Social:Oghuz languages|44-AAB-a]]
| map              = Map of Turkish Language.svg
| mapcaption       = {{legend|#004DFF|Countries where Turkish is an official language}}
{{legend|#88C4FF|Countries where Turkish is recognised as a minority language}}
{{legend|#AFEEEE|Countries where Turkish is recognised as a minority language and co-official in at least one municipality}}
| notice           = IPA
| glotto           = nucl1301
| glottorefname    = Turkish
| agency           = [[Organization:Turkish Language Association|Turkish Language Association]]
}}

'''Turkish''' ({{lang|tr|Türkçe}} {{IPA-tr|ˈtyɾctʃe||Turkce.ogg}}, {{lang|tr|Türk dili}}; also {{lang|tr|Türkiye Türkçesi}} 'Turkish of Turkey'<ref>{{cite book |title=Islam in Central Asia and the Caucasus Since the Fall of the Soviet Union |first=Bayram |last=Balci |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2018 |page=36 |isbn=978-0-19-005030-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6fpyDwAAQBAJ |language=en}}</ref>) is the most widely spoken of the [[Social:Turkic languages|Turkic languages]], with around 90 to 100 million speakers. It is the national language of [[Place:Turkey|Turkey]] and [[Place:Northern Cyprus|Northern Cyprus]]. Significant smaller groups of Turkish speakers also exist in {{wipe|Germany}}, Austria, Bulgaria, North Macedonia,{{r|turkic}} Greece,{{r|greece}} [[Place:Cyprus|Cyprus]], other parts of [[Earth:Europe|Europe]], the [[Place:South Caucasus|South Caucasus]], and some parts of [[Place:Central Asia|Central Asia]], Iraq, and Syria. Turkish is the 18th most spoken language in the world.

To the west, the influence of Ottoman Turkish—the variety of the Turkish language that was used as the administrative and literary language of the [[Place:Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Empire]]—spread as the Ottoman Empire expanded. In 1928, as one of Atatürk's Reforms in the early years of the Republic of Turkey, the Ottoman Turkish alphabet was replaced with a [[Social:Turkish alphabet|Latin alphabet]].

Some distinctive characteristics of the Turkish language are [[Social:Vowel harmony|vowel harmony]] and extensive agglutination. The basic word order of Turkish is [[Social:Subject–object–verb|subject–object–verb]]. Turkish has no noun classes or grammatical gender. The language makes usage of [[Social:Honorific|honorific]]s and has a strong [[Social:T–V distinction|T–V distinction]] which distinguishes varying levels of politeness, [[Social:Social distance|social distance]], age, courtesy or familiarity toward the addressee. The plural second-person pronoun and verb forms are used referring to a single person out of respect.

== Classification ==
{{Main|Social:Turkic languages}}
Turkish is a member of the [[Social:Oghuz languages|Oghuz]] group of the [[Social:Turkic languages|Turkic]] family. Other members include [[Social:Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]], spoken in [[Place:Azerbaijan|Azerbaijan]] and north-west [[Religion:Iran|Iran]], [[Social:Gagauz language|Gagauz]] of Gagauzia, [[Social:Qashqai language|Qashqai]] of south [[Religion:Iran|Iran]] and the [[Social:Turkmen language|Turkmen]] of Turkmenistan.<ref name="Studia Turcica 1971">Aalto, P. "Iranian Contacts of the Turks in Pre-Islamic times", in Studia Turcica, ed. L. Ligeti, Budapest, 1971, pp. 29–37.</ref>

Historically the [[Social:Turkic languages|Turkic]] family was seen as a branch of the larger [[Social:Altaic languages|Altaic]] family, including [[Social:Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Social:Korean language|Korean]], [[Social:Mongolian language|Mongolian]] and [[Social:Tungusic languages|Tungusic]], with various other language families proposed for inclusion by linguists.<ref>Benzing, J. Einführung in das Studium der altäischen Philologie und der Turkologie, Wiesbaden, 1953.</ref> 

Altaic theory has fallen out of favour since the 1960s, and a majority of linguists now consider Turkic languages to be unrelated to any other language family, though the Altaic hypothesis still has a small degree of support from individual linguists.<ref>{{Citation |last=Starostin |first=George |title=Altaic Languages |date=2016-04-05 |url=https://oxfordre.com/linguistics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.001.0001/acrefore-9780199384655-e-35 |encyclopedia=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics |access-date=2023-07-11 |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.35 |isbn=978-0-19-938465-5}}</ref> The nineteenth-century Ural-Altaic theory, which grouped Turkish with [[Social:Finnish language|Finnish]], [[Social:Hungarian language|Hungarian]] and [[Social:Altaic languages|Altaic]] languages, is considered even less plausible in light of Altaic's rejection.<ref name="Ural-altaische Jahrbücher 1958">Gandjeï, T. "Über die türkischen und mongolischen Elemente der persischen Dichtung der Ilchan-Zeit", in Ural-altaische Jahrbücher 30, 1958, pp. 229–31.</ref> The theory was based mostly on the fact these languages share three features: agglutination, [[Social:Vowel harmony|vowel harmony]] and lack of grammatical gender.<ref name="Ural-altaische Jahrbücher 1958" />

== History ==

[[File:Irk bitig 07.jpg|thumb|right|The 9th-century ''[[Religion:Irk Bitig|Irk Bitig]]'' or "Book of Divination"]]

The earliest known [[Social:Old Turkic language|Old Turkic inscriptions]] are the three monumental Orkhon inscriptions found in modern Mongolia. Erected in honour of the prince Kul Tigin and his brother Emperor Bilge Khagan, these date back to the Second Turkic Khaganate (dated 682–744 CE).<ref>{{cite book|last=Erdal|first=Marcel|title=A Grammar Of Old Turkic|date=March 2004}}</ref> After the discovery and excavation of these monuments and associated stone slabs by Russian archaeologists in the wider area surrounding the Orkhon Valley between 1889 and 1893, it became established that the language on the inscriptions was the [[Social:Old Turkic language|Old Turkic language]] written using the [[Social:Old Turkic alphabet|Old Turkic alphabet]], which has also been referred to as "Turkic runes" or "runiform" due to a superficial similarity to the Germanic runic alphabets.<ref name=runiform>{{cite web|url=http://www.runiform.lingfil.uu.se/|title=A Database of Turkic Runiform Inscriptions|access-date=2017-03-26|archive-date=2017-03-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326231149/http://www.runiform.lingfil.uu.se/|url-status=live}}</ref>

With the Turkic expansion during Early Middle Ages ({{Circa|6th}}–11th centuries), peoples speaking Turkic languages spread across [[Place:Central Asia|Central Asia]], covering a vast geographical region stretching from Siberia all the way to [[Earth:Europe|Europe]] and the [[Place:Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]]. The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks, in particular, brought their language, [[Social:Oghuz languages|Oghuz]]—the direct ancestor of today's Turkish language—into [[Earth:Anatolia|Anatolia]] during the 11th century.<ref name="Findley">{{cite book|last=Findley|first=Carter V.|title=The Turks in World History|publisher=Oxford University Press|date=October 2004|isbn=0-19-517726-6}}</ref> Also during the 11th century, an early linguist of the Turkic languages, Mahmud al-Kashgari from the [[Place:Kara-Khanid Khanate|Kara-Khanid Khanate]], published the first comprehensive Turkic language dictionary and map of the geographical distribution of Turkic speakers in the ''Dīwān Lughāt al-Turk'' ({{lang|ar|ديوان لغات الترك}}).<ref name="Soucek">{{cite book |last=Soucek|first=Svat|title=A History of Inner Asia|url=https://archive.org/details/historyofinneras00souc|url-access=registration|publisher=Cambridge University Press|date=2000|isbn=978-0-521-65169-1}}</ref>

===Ottoman Turkish===
[[File:Oghusenbuchmuseum.jpeg|thumb|right|The 15th century Book of Dede Korkut ]]

Following the adoption of [[Religion:Islam|Islam]] around the year 950 by the [[Place:Kara-Khanid Khanate|Kara-Khanid Khanate]] and the Seljuq Turks, who are both regarded as the ethnic and cultural ancestors of the [[Place:Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]], the administrative language of these states acquired a large collection of loanwords from [[Social:Arabic|Arabic]] and [[Social:Persian language|Persian]]. Turkish literature during the Ottoman period, particularly Divan poetry, was heavily influenced by Persian, including the adoption of poetic meters and a great quantity of imported words. The literary and official language during the [[Place:Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Empire]] period ({{Circa|1299}}–1922) is termed Ottoman Turkish, which was a mixture of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic that differed considerably and was largely unintelligible to the period's everyday Turkish. The everyday Turkish, known as ''kaba Türkçe'' or "vulgar Turkish", spoken by the less-educated lower and also rural members of society, contained a higher percentage of native vocabulary and served as basis for the modern Turkish language.<ref>{{cite book |title=The Balkans: Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804-1999 |last=Glenny |first=Misha |date=2001 |publisher=Penguin |location=New York |language=en|page=99}}</ref>

While visiting the region between Adıyaman and Adana, Evliya Çelebi recorded the "Turkman language" and compared it with his own Turkish:
{| class="wikitable" rules="all" style="margin: 1em; background: #ffffff; border: 2px solid #aaa; font-size: 100%;" width="70%" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="4" align="center"
|- bgcolor=#DDDDDD
| colspan=8 align="center" | Comparison of 17th-century Southern Anatolian Turkman, 17th-century elite, and modern standard Turkish dialects<ref>{{cite book |title=Evliyâ Çelebi Seyahatnâmesi: III |pages=174–175 |url=https://archive.org/details/EvliyelebiSeyahatnmesiIII/page/n174/mode/2up |access-date=17 October 2022}}</ref>
|- bgcolor=#f0f0f0 align="left"
! Turkman language         
! Ottoman Turkish
! Modern Turkish
! English
! Turkman language         
! Ottoman Turkish
! Modern Turkish
! English
|-style="background:#ccc;"
|-
| ''yalvaç'' ||  ''peygamber'' || ''peygamber'' || prophet || ''fakı'' ||  ''imâm'' || ''imam'' || [[Religion:Imam|imam]] 
|-
| ''yüce Çalap'' || ''Âli Allah''  || ''yüce Allah'' || mighty God || ''eyne'' || ''câmi'''  || ''cami'' || mosque
|-
| ''mezgit'' || ''mescid'' || ''mescit'' || masjid || ''gümeç'', ''lavâşa'', ''pişi'' || ''ekmek'' || ''ekmek'', ''lavaş'', ''pişi'' || bread, lavash, boortsog
|-
| ''kekremsi'' || ''şarâb'' || ''şarap'' || wine || ''Kancarıdaydın?'' || ''Nerede idin?''  || ''Neredeydin?'' || Where were you?
|-
| ''Kancarı yılıgan be?'' || ''Nereye gidersin bire?'' || ''Nereye gidersin bre?'' || Where are you going? || ''Muhıdı geyen mi?'' || ''Ferâce giyermisin?'' || ''Ferace giyer misin?'' || Will you wear ''ferace''?
|-
| ''Bargım yavıncıdı.'' || ''Karnım ağrıdı.'' || ''Karnım ağrıdı.'' || My stomach hurt. || ''şarıkdı'' || ''şehirli oldu'' || ''Şehirli oldu.'' || They became urban.
|-
|}

=== {{anchor|Turkish language reform}}Language reform and modern Turkish ===
After the foundation of the modern state of [[Place:Turkey|Turkey]] and the script reform, the [[Organization:Turkish Language Association|Turkish Language Association]] (TDK) was established in 1932 under the patronage of [[Biography:Mustafa Kemal Atatürk|Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]], with the aim of conducting research on Turkish. One of the tasks of the newly established association was to initiate a [[Language reform|language reform]] to replace [[Social:Loanword|loanword]]s of Arabic and Persian origin with Turkish equivalents.{{efn|See Lewis (2002) for a thorough treatment of the Turkish language reform.<ref name=lewis2002>{{cite book|last=Lewis|first=Geoffrey|title=The Turkish Language Reform: A Catastrophic Success|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2002|isbn=0-19-925669-1}}</ref>}} By banning the usage of imported words in the press,{{clarify|reason=This blanket statement needs to be more specific. Were words like "haber" or "hürriyet" (obviously "imported", i.e. borrowed) ever banned?|date=June 2021}} the association succeeded in removing several hundred foreign words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, it also opted for reviving Old Turkish words which had not been used for centuries.<ref name="TDK History"/> In 1935, the TDK published a bilingual [[Social:Ottoman Turkish|Ottoman-Turkish]]/Pure Turkish dictionary that documents the results of the language reform.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Szurek|first=Emmanuel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0FLoBgAAQBAJ&q=ottoman+turkish+dictionary+1935&pg=PA94|title=Order and Compromise: Government Practices in Turkey from the Late Ottoman Empire to the Early 21st Century|date=2015-02-17|publisher=[[Company:Brill Publishers|Brill Publishers]]|isbn=978-90-04-28985-7|editor-last=Aymes|editor-first=Marc|pages=94|language=en|access-date=2021-08-03|archive-date=2023-01-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115123307/https://books.google.com/books?id=0FLoBgAAQBAJ&q=ottoman+turkish+dictionary+1935&pg=PA94|url-status=live}}</ref>   

Owing to this sudden change in the language, older and younger people in Turkey started to differ in their vocabularies. While the generations born before the 1940s tend to use the older terms of Arabic or Persian origin, the younger generations favor new expressions. It is considered particularly ironic that Atatürk himself, in his lengthy speech to the new Parliament in 1927, used the formal style of Ottoman Turkish that had been common at the time amongst statesmen and the educated strata of society in the setting of formal speeches and documents. After the language reform, the Turkish education system discontinued the teaching of literary form of Ottoman Turkish and the speaking and writing ability of society atrophied to the point that, in later years, Turkish society would perceive the speech to be so alien to listeners that it had to be "translated" three times into modern Turkish: first in 1963, again in 1986, and most recently in 1995.{{efn|See Lewis (2002), pages 2-3.<ref name=lewis2002/> For the first two translations. For the third, see Bedi Yazıcı.<ref>{{cite web |author=Bedi Yazıcı |url=http://www.nutuk.org/ |title=Nutuk: Özgün metin ve çeviri (Atatürk's Speech: original text and translation) |access-date=2007-09-28 |language=tr |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928221336/http://www.nutuk.org/ |archive-date=2007-09-28 |url-status=dead }}</ref>}}

The past few decades have seen the continuing work of the TDK to coin new Turkish words to express new concepts and technologies as they enter the language, mostly from English. Many of these new words, particularly information technology terms, have received widespread acceptance. However, the TDK is occasionally criticized for coining words which sound contrived and artificial. Some earlier changes—such as ''{{lang|tr|bölem}}'' to replace ''{{lang|tr|fırka}}'', "political party"—also failed to meet with popular approval (''{{lang|tr|fırka}}'' has been replaced by the French loanword ''{{lang|tr|parti}}''). Some words restored from Old Turkic have taken on specialized meanings; for example ''{{lang|tr|betik}}'' (originally meaning "book") is now used to mean "[[Scripting language|script]]" in [[Computer science|computer science]].<ref name=cokbilgi>{{cite web|title=Öz Türkçeleştirme Çalışmaları|url=http://www.cokbilgi.com/yazi/oz-turkcelestirme-calismalari/|work=Çok Bilgi|access-date=29 May 2014|archive-date=14 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714065848/https://www.cokbilgi.com/yazi/oz-turkcelestirme-calismalari/|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Some examples of modern Turkish words and the old loanwords are:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! align=left | Ottoman Turkish
! align=left | Modern Turkish
! align=left | English translation
! align=left | Comments
|-
| ''{{lang|ota|مثلث|script=Arab}} ({{lang|tr|müselles}})'' || ''{{lang|tr|üçgen}}'' || triangle || Compound of the noun ''{{lang|tr|üç}}'' ("three") and the suffix ''{{lang|tr|-gen}}''
|-
| ''{{lang|ota|طیاره|scrip=Arab}} ({{lang|tr|tayyare}})'' || ''{{lang|tr|uçak}}'' || aeroplane || Derived from the verb ''{{lang|tr|uçmak}}'' ("to fly"). The word was first proposed to mean "airport".
|-
| ''{{lang|ota|نسبت|script=Arab}} ({{lang|tr|nispet}})'' || ''{{lang|tr|oran}}'' || ratio || The old word is still used in the language today together with the new one. The modern word is from the Old Turkic verb ''{{lang|otk|or-}}'' ("to cut").
|-
| ''{{lang|ota|شمال|script=Arab}} ({{lang|tr|şimal}})'' || ''{{lang|tr|kuzey}}'' || north || Derived from the Old Turkic noun ''{{lang|otk|kuz}}'' ("cold and dark place", "shadow"). The word is restored from [[Social:Middle Turkic languages|Middle Turkic]] usage.<ref>{{cite book |author=Mütercim Asım |title=Burhân-ı Katı Tercemesi |location=İstanbul |year=1799 |language=tr }}</ref>
|-
| ''{{lang|ota|تشرینِ اول|}} ({{lang|tr|teşrinievvel}})'' || ''{{lang|tr|ekim}}'' || October || The noun ''{{lang|tr|ekim}}'' means "sowing", referring to the planting of cereal seeds in autumn, which is widespread in Turkey
|}

== Geographic distribution ==
[[File:IKEABerlin.JPG|thumb|right|upright|An advertisement by the IKEA branch in Berlin written in the German and Turkish languages.]]
Turkish is natively spoken by the Turkish people in Turkey and by the Turkish diaspora in some 30 other countries. Turkish language is mutually intelligible with [[Social:Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]] and other Turkic languages. In particular, Turkish-speaking minorities exist in countries that formerly (in whole or part) belonged to the [[Place:Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Empire]], such as Iraq{{r|iraq}}, Bulgaria, [[Place:Cyprus|Cyprus]], Greece (primarily in Western Thrace), the Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, and Serbia. More than two million Turkish speakers live in Germany; and there are significant Turkish-speaking communities in the United States, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.<ref name=e25/> Due to the [[Social:Cultural assimilation|cultural assimilation]] of Turkish immigrants in host countries, not all ethnic members of the diaspora speak the language with native fluency.{{efn|See for example citations given in Cindark, Ibrahim/Aslan, Sema (2004).<ref>[http://pub.ids-mannheim.de/autoren/ids/cindarkibrahim.html Deutschlandtürkisch?] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130412080152/http://pub.ids-mannheim.de/autoren/ids/cindarkibrahim.html |date=2013-04-12 }}. Institut für Deutsche Sprache, page 3.</ref>}}

In 2005 93% of the population of Turkey were native speakers of Turkish,<ref name="Eurobarometer Languages">{{cite web |title= Special Eurobarometer 243: Europeans and their Languages (Survey) |publisher= Europa |author= European Commission |year= 2006 |url= http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_en.pdf |access-date= 2010-02-14 |archive-date= 2016-04-14 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160414102658/http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_en.pdf |url-status= live }}</ref> about 67 million at the time, with [[Social:Kurdish languages|Kurdish languages]] making up most of the remainder.<ref name="e25">{{e25|kmr|Kurdish, Northern}}</ref>

[[Social:Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani language]], official in Azerbaijan, is mutually intelligible with Turkish and speakers of both languages can understand them without noticeable difficulty, especially when discussion comes on ordinary, daily language. Turkey has very good relations with Azerbaijan, with a multitude of Turkish companies and authorities investing there, while the influence of Turkey in the country is very high. The rising presence of this very similar language in Azerbaijan and the fact that many children use Turkish words instead of Azerbaijani words due to satellite TV has caused concern that the dinstictive features of the language will be eroded. Many bookstores sell books in Turkish language along Azerbaijani language ones, with Agalar Mahmadov, a leading intellectual, voicing his concern that Turkish language has "already started to take over the national and natural dialects of Azerbaijan". However, the presence of Turkish as foreign language is not as high as Russian.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijan-grapples-with-the-rise-of-turkish-language|title=Azerbaijan Grapples With the Rise of Turkish Language|website=Eurasianet|language=en|accessdate=2022-08-18|date=2017-02-28|first=Durna|last=Safarova|archive-date=2022-10-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221023093328/https://eurasianet.org/azerbaijan-grapples-with-the-rise-of-turkish-language|url-status=live}}</ref> In Uzbekistan, the second most populated Turkic country, a new TV channel ''Foreign Languages TV'' was established in 2022. This channel has been broadcasting Turkish lessons along with English, French, German and Russian lessons.

=== Official status ===
{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = horizontal
| image1 = Welcome sign to the village of Çardağlı.jpg
| width1 = 160
| image2 = Prizren (3DilliTabela).jpg
| width2 = 280
| footer = Left: Bilingual sign, Turkish (top) and [[Social:Arabic language|Arabic]] (bottom), at a Turkmen village in Kirkuk Governorate, Iraq.<br/>Right: Road signs in [[Place:Prizren|Prizren]], Kosovo. Official languages are: [[Social:Albanian language|Albanian]] (top), [[Social:Serbian language|Serbian]] (middle) and Turkish (bottom).
}}

Turkish is the official language of [[Place:Turkey|Turkey]] and is one of the official languages of [[Place:Cyprus|Cyprus]]. Turkish has official status in 38 municipalities in Kosovo, including Mamusha,{{r|kosovo}}{{r|sabah-kosovo}}, two in the Republic of North Macedonia and in Kirkuk Governorate in Iraq.<ref name="CIA">{{cite web | url= https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2098.html#mk | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070613004519/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2098.html#mk | url-status= dead | archive-date= June 13, 2007 | publisher= CIA World Factbook | title= Official regional languages| year= 2002 | access-date= 2016-02-10}}</ref><ref name=guclu/> [[Place:Cyprus|Cyprus]] has requested the [[Social:European Union|European Union]] to add Turkish as an official language, as it is one of the two official languages of the country.{{r|cyprus-eu}} 

In Turkey, the regulatory body for Turkish is the [[Organization:Turkish Language Association|Turkish Language Association]] (''Türk Dil Kurumu'' or TDK), which was founded in 1932 under the name ''Türk Dili Tetkik Cemiyeti'' ("Society for Research on the Turkish Language"). The Turkish Language Association was influenced by the ideology of linguistic purism: indeed one of its primary tasks was the replacement of loanwords and of foreign grammatical constructions with equivalents of Turkish origin.{{efn|The name TDK itself exemplifies this process. The words ''tetkik'' and ''cemiyet'' in the original name are both Arabic loanwords (the final ''-i'' of ''cemiyeti'' being a Turkish possessive suffix); ''kurum'' is a native Turkish word based on the verb ''kurmak'', "set up, found".{{citation needed|date= July 2014}}}} These changes, together with the adoption of the new [[Social:Turkish alphabet|Turkish alphabet]] in 1928, shaped the modern Turkish language spoken today. The TDK became an independent body in 1951, with the lifting of the requirement that it should be presided over by the Minister of Education. This status continued until August 1983, when it was again made into a governmental body in the constitution of 1982, following the military coup d'état of 1980.<ref name="TDK History">{{cite web|author= Turkish Language Association|url= http://www.tdk.gov.tr/TR/BelgeGoster.aspx?F6E10F8892433CFFAAF6AA849816B2EF2858DA18F4388CDD|title= Türk Dil Kurumu – Tarihçe (History of the Turkish Language Association)|access-date= 2007-03-18 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070316024438/http://www.tdk.gov.tr/TR/BelgeGoster.aspx?F6E10F8892433CFFAAF6AA849816B2EF2858DA18F4388CDD | archive-date = March 16, 2007 |url-status = dead|language= tr}}</ref>

== Dialects ==
Modern standard Turkish is based on the dialect of Istanbul.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia= Concise compendium of the world's languages |title= Turkish|page= 547|last= Campbell |first= George|publisher= Routledge |place= London|year= 1995}}</ref> This '''Istanbul Turkish''' (''İstanbul Türkçesi'') constitutes the model of written and spoken Turkish, as recommended by Ziya Gökalp, Ömer Seyfettin and others.<ref>{{Cite web | title = En iyi İstanbul Türkçesini kim konuşur? | work = Milliyet | date = 18 November 2012 | access-date = 2017-12-30 | url = http://www.milliyet.com.tr/-magazin-1628628/ | archive-date = 2018-11-11 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181111073331/http://www.milliyet.com.tr/-magazin-1628628/ | url-status = live }}</ref>

Dialectal variation persists, in spite of the [[Social:Dialect levelling|levelling influence]] of the standard used in mass media and in the Turkish education system since the 1930s.<ref name="Johanson">{{Citation|last= Johanson |first= Lars |year= 2001 |title= Discoveries on the Turkic linguistic map |url= http://www.srii.org/Map.pdf | url-status = dead|publisher= Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20070205070509/http://www.srii.org/Map.pdf |archive-date= February 5, 2007 |access-date= 2007-03-18 }}</ref> Academic researchers from Turkey often refer to Turkish dialects as ''ağız'' or ''şive'', leading to an ambiguity with the linguistic concept of [[Social:Accent (sociolinguistics)|accent]], which is also covered with these words. Several universities, as well as a dedicated work-group of the Turkish Language Association, carry out [[Social:Project|project]]s investigating Turkish dialects. {{As of | 2002}} work continued on the compilation and publication of their research as a comprehensive dialect-atlas of the Turkish language.<ref name="Dialects Workshop">{{cite book |editor1-last=Özsoy |editor1-first=A. Sumru |editor2=Taylan, Eser E. |title=Türkçe'nin ağızları çalıştayı bildirileri |trans-title=Workshop on the dialects of Turkish |publisher=Boğaziçi University Yayınevi|year=2000|isbn=975-518-140-7|language=tr|editor1-link=A. Sumru Özsoy}}</ref><ref name="Dialects TDK">{{cite journal|last= Akalın|first= Şükrü Halûk|title= Türk Dil Kurumu'nun 2002 yılı çalışmaları (Turkish Language Association progress report for 2002)|journal= Türk Dili |issn= 1301-465X|volume= 85|issue= 613|url= http://www.tdk.gov.tr/TR/dosyagoster.aspx?DIL=1&BELGEANAH=2693&DOSYAISIM=calismalar2002.pdf|access-date= 2007-03-18|date= January 2003 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070627231538/http://www.tdk.gov.tr/TR/dosyagoster.aspx?DIL=1&BELGEANAH=2693&DOSYAISIM=calismalar2002.pdf | archive-date = June 27, 2007 |url-status = dead|language= tr}}</ref> Although the Ottoman alphabet, being slightly more phonetically ambiguous than the Latin script, encoded for many of the dialectal variations between Turkish dialects, the modern Latin script fails to do this. Examples of this are the presence of the nasal velar sound [ŋ] in certain eastern dialects of Turkish which was represented by the Ottoman letter /ڭ/ but that was merged into /n/ in the Latin script. Additionally are letters such as /خ/, /ق/, /غ/ which make the sounds [ɣ], [q], and [x], respectively in certain eastiern dialects but that are merged into [g], [k], and [h] in western dialects and are therefore defectively represented in the Latin alphabet for speakers of eastern dialects. 

[[File:Turkey Turkish dialects map (Main subgroups) en.jpg|thumb|left|Map of the main subgroups of Turkish dialects across Southeast Europe and the Middle East.]]

Some immigrants to Turkey from [[Place:Rumelia|Rumelia]] speak [[Social:Rumelian Turkish|Rumelian Turkish]], which includes the distinct dialects of Ludogorie, Dinler, and Adakale, which show the influence of the theoretized Balkan sprachbund. ''Kıbrıs Türkçesi'' is the name for [[Social:Cypriot Turkish|Cypriot Turkish]] dialect and is spoken by the Turkish Cypriots. ''Edirne'' is the dialect of [[Place:Edirne|Edirne]]. ''Ege'' is spoken in the Aegean region, with its usage extending to Antalya. The nomadic Yörüks of the Mediterranean Region of Turkey also have their own dialect of Turkish.<ref>{{cite book|last= Shashi|first= Shyam Singh|title= Encyclopaedia of Humanities and Social Sciences|publisher= Anmol Publications|year= 1992|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=4T0oAAAAMAAJ&q=yoruk+turkish+taurus|page= 47|access-date= 2008-03-26|archive-date= 2023-01-15|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230115123307/https://books.google.com/books?id=4T0oAAAAMAAJ&q=yoruk+turkish+taurus|url-status= live}}</ref> This group is not to be confused with the Yuruk nomads of Macedonia, Greece, and European Turkey, who speak [[Social:Balkan Gagauz Turkish|Balkan Gagauz Turkish]].

The Meskhetian Turks who live in Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Russia as well as in several Central Asian countries, also speak an Eastern Anatolian dialect of Turkish, originating in the areas of Kars, Ardahan, and Artvin and sharing similarities with [[Social:Azerbaijani language|Azerbaijani]], the language of Azerbaijan.<ref>{{citation|last1= Aydıngün |first1= Ayşegül |last2= Harding |first2= Çiğdem Balım |last3= Hoover |first3= Matthew |last4= Kuznetsov |first4= Igor |last5= Swerdlow |first5= Steve |year= 2006 |title= Meskhetian Turks: An Introduction to their History, Culture, and Resettelment Experiences |url= http://www.cal.org/CO/pdffiles/mturks.pdf |publisher=Center for Applied Linguistics |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714205907/http://www.cal.org/co/pdffiles/mturks.pdf |archive-date=2007-07-14 }}</ref>

The Central Anatolia Region speaks ''Orta Anadolu''. ''Karadeniz'', spoken in the Eastern Black Sea Region and represented primarily by the Trabzon dialect, exhibits substratum influence from [[Social:Greek language|Greek]] in [[Social:Phonology|phonology]] and [[Philosophy:Syntax|syntax]];<ref name="Brendemoen">{{Cite conference|last= Brendemoen|first= B. |title= Phonological Aspects of Greek-Turkish Language Contact in Trabzon |year= 1996 |conference=Conference on Turkish in Contact, Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Wassenaar, 5–6 February 1996}}</ref> it is also known as ''Laz dialect'' (not to be confused with the [[Social:Laz language|Laz language]]). ''Kastamonu'' is spoken in Kastamonu and its surrounding areas. [[Social:Karamanli Turkish|Karamanli Turkish]] is spoken in Greece, where it is called {{lang|grc| Kαραμανλήδικα}}. It is the literary standard for the Karamanlides.<ref>
{{Cite journal
 |last= Balta |first= Evangelia |date= Fall 2017 |title= Translating Books from Greek into Turkish for the Karamanli Orthodox Christians of Anatolia (1718–1856) |journal= International Journal of Turkish Studies |volume= 23 |issue= 1–2 |pages= 20 |via= Ebsco}}</ref>

== Phonology ==
{{hatnote|See [[Social:Turkish alphabet|Turkish alphabet]] for a pronunciation guide}}

=== Consonants ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|+ Consonant phonemes of Standard Turkish<ref name=zimmerorgun>{{Cite book|last1=Zimmer|first1=Karl|last2=Orgun|first2=Orhan|year=1999|chapter=Turkish|title=Handbook of the International Phonetic Association: A guide to the use of the International Phonetic Alphabet|place=Cambridge|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=0-521-65236-7|pages=154–158|chapter-url=http://www.uta.edu/faculty/cmfitz/swnal/projects/CoLang/courses/Transcription/rosettaproject_tur_phon-2.pdf|access-date=2015-04-12|archive-date=2018-07-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180725111322/http://www.uta.edu/faculty/cmfitz/swnal/projects/CoLang/courses/Transcription/rosettaproject_tur_phon-2.pdf|url-status=dead}}</ref>
! colspan="2" |
! Labial
! Dental/<br>Alveolar
! Post-<br>alveolar
! Palatal
! Velar
!Glottal
|-
! colspan="2" | Nasal
| {{IPA link|m}}
| {{IPA link|n̪|n}}
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | Stop
! {{small|voiceless}}
| {{IPA link|p}}
| {{IPA link|t̪|t}}
| {{IPA link|t͡ʃ}}
| ({{IPA link|c}})
| {{IPA link|k}}
|
|-
! {{small|voiced}}
| {{IPA link|b}}
| {{IPA link|d̪|d}}
| {{IPA link|d͡ʒ}}
| ({{IPA link|ɟ}})
| {{IPA link|ɡ}}
|
|-
! rowspan="2" | Fricative
! {{small|voiceless}}
| {{IPA link|f}}
| {{IPA link|s̪|s}}
| {{IPA link|ʃ}}
|
| 
|{{IPA link|h}}
|-
! {{small|voiced}}
| rowspan="2" | {{IPA link|v}}
| {{IPA link|z̪|z}}
| {{IPA link|ʒ}}
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" | Approximant
| ({{IPA link|ɫ̪|ɫ}})
| {{IPA link|l̠|l}}
| {{IPA link|j}}
| ({{IPA link|ɰ}})
|
|-
! colspan="2" | Tap
|
| {{IPA link|ɾ|ɾ}}
|
|
|
|
|}

At least one source claims Turkish consonants are laryngeally-specified three-way fortis-lenis (aspirated/neutral/voiced) like Armenian.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Petrova |first1=Olga |last2=Plapp |first2=Rosemary |last3=Ringen |first3=Catherine |last4=Szentgyörgyi |first4=Szilárd |date=2006 |title=Voice and aspiration: Evidence from Russian, Hungarian, German, Swedish, and Turkish |url=https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7a27/5c57dd25134aa7628c46a64ca470cc3a71db.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180908054256/https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7a27/5c57dd25134aa7628c46a64ca470cc3a71db.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=2018-09-08 |journal=The Linguistic Review |language=en |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=1–35 |doi=10.1515/tlr.2006.001 |s2cid=42712078 |issn=0167-6318}}</ref>

The phoneme that is usually referred to as ''yumuşak g'' ("soft g"), written {{angbr|ğ}} in Turkish [[Social:Orthography|orthography]], represents a vowel sequence or a rather weak bilabial approximant between rounded vowels, a weak palatal approximant between unrounded front vowels, and a vowel sequence elsewhere. It never occurs at the beginning of a word or a syllable, but always follows a vowel. When word-final or preceding another consonant, it lengthens the preceding vowel.<ref name=zimmerorgun/>

In native Turkic words, the sounds {{IPA|[c]}}, {{IPA|[ɟ]}}, and {{IPA|[l]}} are in complementary distribution with {{IPA|[k]}}, {{IPA|[ɡ]}}, and {{IPA|[ɫ]}}; the former set occurs adjacent to front vowels and the latter adjacent to back vowels. The distribution of these [[Social:Phoneme|phoneme]]s is often unpredictable, however, in foreign borrowings and proper nouns. In such words, {{IPA|[c]}}, {{IPA|[ɟ]}}, and {{IPA|[l]}} often occur with back vowels:<ref name=lewis2001/>{{rp|93–4,6}} some examples are given below.

==== Consonant devoicing ====

Turkish orthography reflects final-obstruent devoicing, a form of consonant mutation whereby a voiced obstruent, such as {{IPA|/b d dʒ ɡ/}}, is devoiced to {{IPA|[p t tʃ k]}} at the end of a word or before a consonant, but retains its voicing before a vowel. In loan words, the voiced equivalent of ''/k/'' is ''/g/''; in native words, it is ''/ğ/''.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.imla.dilimiz.com/TDK/unsuzlerinnitelikleri.HTM|title=Sesler ve ses uyumları "Sounds and Vovel karmony"|access-date=2013-01-13|publisher=[[Organization:Turkish Language Association|Turkish Language Association]]|language=tr|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728093237/http://www.imla.dilimiz.com/TDK/unsuzlerinnitelikleri.HTM|archive-date=2012-07-28|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Turkish Consonant Mutation|url=http://turkishbasics.com/grammar/consonant-mutation.php|website=turkishbasics.com|language=EN|access-date=2018-05-02|archive-date=2018-05-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180502213456/http://turkishbasics.com/grammar/consonant-mutation.php|url-status=live}}</ref>

{| class="sortable wikitable"
|+ Obstruent devoicing in nouns
|-
!Underlying <br/>consonant
!Devoiced <br/>form
!Underlying <br/>form
!Dictionary form
!Dative case /<br/>1sg present
!Meaning
|-
|b||p||''*kitab''||''kitap''||''kitaba''||book (loan)
|-
|c||ç|| ''*uc'' || ''uç''||''uca''||tip
|-
|d||t||''*bud''||''but''||''buda''||thigh
|-
|g||k||''*reng''||''renk''||''renge''||color (loan)
|-
|ğ||k||''*ekmeğ''||''ekmek''||''ekmeğe''||bread
|}

This is analogous to languages such as [[Social:German language|German]] and [[Social:Russian language|Russian]], but in the case of Turkish it only applies, as the above examples demonstrate, to stops and affricates, not to fricatives. The spelling is usually made to match the sound. However, in a few cases, such as ''ad'' 'name' (dative ''ada''), the underlying form is retained in the spelling (cf. ''at'' 'horse', dative ''ata''). Other exceptions are ''od'' 'fire' vs. ''ot'' 'herb', ''sac'' 'sheet metal', ''saç'' 'hair'. Most loanwords, such as ''kitap'' above, are spelled as pronounced, but a few such as ''hac'' 'hajj', ''şad'' 'happy', and ''yad'' 'strange' or 'stranger' also show their underlying forms.{{citation needed|date=July 2014}}

Native nouns of two or more syllables that end in ''/k/'' in dictionary form are nearly all ''//ğ//'' in underlying form. However, most verbs and monosyllabic nouns are underlyingly ''//k//''.<ref name=lewis2001/>{{rp|10}}

=== Vowels ===
[[File:Turkish vowel chart.svg|thumb|upright=1.13|Vowels of Turkish.<ref name=zimmerorgun/>]]
The vowels of the Turkish language are, in their alphabetical order, {{angbr|a}}, {{angbr|e}}, {{angbr|ı}}, {{angbr|i}}, {{angbr|o}}, {{angbr|ö}}, {{angbr|u}}, {{angbr|ü}}.{{efn|The vowel represented by {{angbr|ı}} is also commonly transcribed as {{angbr IPA|ɨ}} in linguistic literature.}} The Turkish vowel system can be considered as being three-dimensional, where vowels are characterised by how and where they are articulated focusing on three key features: front and back, rounded and unrounded and vowel height.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book|title=Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar|last1=Goksel|first1=Asli|last2=Kerslake|first2=Celia|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|isbn=0-415-11494-2|pages=24–25}}</ref> Vowels are classified [±back], [±round] and [±high].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Khalilzadeh|first=Amir|date=Winter 2010|title=Vowel Harmony in Turkish|journal=Karadeniz Araştırmaları: Balkan, Kafkas, Doğu Avrupa ve Anadolu İncelemeleri Dergisi|volume=6|issue=24|pages=141–150}}</ref>

The only diphthongs in the language are found in [[Social:Loanword|loanword]]s and may be categorised as falling diphthongs usually analyzed as a sequence of /j/ and a vowel.<ref name=zimmerorgun/>

==== Vowel harmony ====
{{Details|Vowel harmony}}

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center; margin-left: 1em"
! rowspan="2" | Turkish Vowel Harmony
! colspan="4" | Front Vowels || colspan="4" | Back Vowels
|-
! colspan="2" | Unrounded || colspan="2" | Rounded || colspan="2" | Unrounded || colspan="2" | Rounded
|-
! Vowel
| style="border-right: 0;" | '''e''' {{IPAslink|e}}
| '''i''' {{IPAslink|i}} || '''ü''' {{IPAslink|y}}
| style="border-left: 0;" | '''ö''' {{IPAslink|ø}} || '''a''' {{IPAslink|a}}
| style="border-left: 0;" | '''ı''' {{IPAslink|ɯ}} || '''u''' {{IPAslink|u}}
| style="border-left: 0;" | '''o''' {{IPAslink|o}}
|- style="text-align: center;"
! Twofold (Backness)
| colspan="4" | '''e''' || colspan="4" | '''a'''
|- style="text-align: center;"
! Fourfold (Backness + Rounding)
| colspan="2" | '''i''' || colspan="2" | '''ü''' || colspan="2" | '''ı''' || colspan="2" | '''u'''
|}

<!--NOTICE: Please do not remove/change the following image (File:TurkishRoadSign-WelcomeToEurope Modified.jpg) as it is referred from within the text to illustrate some linguistic concepts-->[[File:TurkishRoadSign-WelcomeToEurope Modified.jpg|thumb|Road sign at the European end of the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul. (Photo taken during the 28th Istanbul Marathon in 2006)]]

The principle of vowel harmony, which permeates Turkish word-formation and suffixation, is due to the natural human tendency towards economy of muscular effort.<ref name="mundy">{{cite book|last=Mundy|first=C.|title=Turkish Syntax as a System of Qualification.|location=Oxford|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1957|pages=279–305}}</ref> This principle is expressed in Turkish through three rules:

# If the first vowel of a word is a back vowel, any subsequent vowel is also a back vowel; if the first is a front vowel, any subsequent vowel is also a front vowel.<ref name="mundy"/>
# If the first vowel is unrounded, so too are subsequent vowels.<ref name="mundy"/>
# If the first vowel is rounded, subsequent vowels are either rounded and close or unrounded and open.<ref name="deny">{{cite book|last=Deny|first=J.|title=Grammaire de la langue turque.|location=Paris|publisher=Éditions E. Leroux|year=1921}}</ref>

The second and third rules minimize muscular effort during speech. More specifically, they are related to the phenomenon of labial assimilation:<ref name="gabain">{{cite book|last=von Gabain|first=A.|title=Alttürkische Grammatik|year=1950}}</ref> if the lips are '''rounded''' (a process that requires muscular effort) for the first vowel they may stay rounded for subsequent vowels.<ref name="deny"/> If they are '''unrounded''' for the first vowel, the speaker does not make the additional muscular effort to round them subsequently.<ref name="mundy"/>

Grammatical [[Social:Affix|affix]]es have "a chameleon-like quality",<ref name=lewis1953>{{cite book|last=Lewis|first=Geoffrey|title=Teach Yourself Turkish|url=https://archive.org/details/teachyourselftur00lewirich|url-access=registration|publisher=English Universities Press|year=1953| isbn=978-0-340-49231-4 }}</ref>{{rp|21}} and obey one of the following patterns of vowel harmony:
* '''twofold (''-e/-a'')''':{{efn|For the terms ''twofold'' and ''fourfold'', as well as the superscript notation, see Lewis (1953), pages 21-22.<ref name=lewis1953/>}} In his more recent works Lewis prefers to omit the superscripts, on the grounds that "there is no need for this once the principle has been grasped" (Lewis [2001]).<ref name=lewis2001/>{{rp|18}} the locative case suffix, for example, is ''-de'' after front vowels and ''-da'' after back vowels. The notation ''-de''² is a convenient shorthand for this pattern.
* '''fourfold (''-i/-ı/-ü/-u'')''': the genitive case suffix, for example, is ''-in'' or ''-ın'' after unrounded vowels (front or back respectively); and ''-ün'' or ''-un'' after the corresponding rounded vowels. In this case, the shorthand notation ''-in''<sup>4</sup> is used.

Practically, the twofold pattern (also referred to as the e-type vowel harmony) means that in the environment where the vowel in the word stem is formed in the front of the mouth, the suffix will take the e-form, while if it is formed in the back it will take the a-form. The fourfold pattern (also called the i-type) accounts for rounding as well as for front/back.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book|title=Turkish Grammar|last=Underhill|first=Robert|publisher=The MIT Press|year=1976|isbn=0-262-21006-1|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|pages=25}}</ref> The following examples, based on the copula ''-dir''<sup>4</sup> ("[it] is"), illustrate the principles of i-type vowel harmony in practice: ''Türkiye'<nowiki/>'''dir''''' ("it is Turkey"),{{efn|In modern Turkish orthography, an apostrophe is used to separate proper names from any suffixes.}} ''kapı'''dır''''' ("it is the door"), but ''gün'''dür''''' ("it is the day"), ''palto'''dur''''' ("it is the coat").<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Husby|first=Olaf|title=Diagnostic use of nonword repetition for detection of language impairment among Turkish speaking minority children in Norway|url=https://www.academia.edu/3029750|journal=Working Papers Department of Language and Communication Studies NTNV|language=en|volume=3/2006|pages=139–149|via=Academia.edu|access-date=2017-07-28|archive-date=2022-10-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221023093307/https://www.academia.edu/3029750|url-status=live}}</ref>

===== Exceptions to vowel harmony =====
These are four word-classes that are exceptions to the rules of vowel harmony:

# '''Native, non-compound words''', e.g. ''{{lang|tr|dahi}}'' "also", ''{{lang|tr|ela}}'' "light brown", ''{{lang|tr|elma}}'' "apple", ''{{lang|tr|hangi}}'' "which", ''{{lang|tr|hani}}'' "where", ''{{lang|tr|inanmak}}'' "to believe", ''{{lang|tr|kardeş}}'' "sibling", ''{{lang|tr|şişman}}'' "fat", ''{{lang|tr|anne}}'' "mother"
# '''Native compound words''', e.g. ''{{lang|tr|bugün}}'' "today", ''{{lang|tr|dedikodu}}'' "gossip", ''{{lang|tr|haydi}}'' "come on"
# '''Foreign words''', e.g. ''{{lang|tr|ferman}}'' (< Farsi ''{{lang|fa|فرماندهی}}'' "command"), ''{{lang|tr|mikrop}}'' (< French ''{{lang|fr|microbe}}'' "microbe"), ''{{lang|tr|piskopos}}'' (< Greek ''{{lang|el|επίσκοπος}}'' "bishop")
# '''Invariable suffixes:''' '''–daş''' (denoting common attachment to the concept expressed by the noun), '''–yor''' (denoting the present tense in the third person), '''–ane''' (turning adjectives or nouns into adverbs), '''–ken''' (meaning "while being"), '''–leyin''' (meaning "in/at/during"), '''{{lang|tr|–imtırak}}''' (weakening an adjective of color or taste in a way similar to the English suffix –ish as in blueish), '''–ki''' (making a pronoun or adjective out of an adverb or a noun in the locative case), '''–gil''' (meaning "the house or family of"), '''–gen''' (referring to the name of plane figures)
{| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;"
! scope="col" | Invariable suffix
! scope="col" | Turkish example
! scope="col" | Meaning in English
! scope="col" | Remarks
|-
| '''–daş'''
| ''{{lang|tr|meslektaş}}'' || "colleague"
| From ''{{lang|tr|meslek}}'' "profession."
|-
| '''–yor'''
| ''{{lang|tr|geliyor}}'' || "he/she/it is coming"
| From ''{{lang|tr|gel–}}'' "to come."
|-
| '''–ane'''
| ''{{lang|tr|şahane}}'' || "regal"
| From ''{{lang|tr|şah}},'' "king."
|-
| '''–ken'''
| ''{{lang|tr|uyurken}}'' || "while sleeping"
| From ''{{lang|tr|uyu–}},'' "to sleep."
|-
| '''–leyin'''
| ''{{lang|tr|sabahleyin}}'' || "in the morning"
| From ''{{lang|tr|sabah}},'' "morning."
|-
| '''–imtırak'''
| ''{{lang|tr|ekşimtırak}}'' || "sourish"
| From ''{{lang|tr|ekşi}},'' "sour."
|-
| '''–ki'''
| ''{{lang|tr|ormandaki}}'' || "(that) in the forest"
| From ''{{lang|tr|orman}},'' "forest."
|-
| '''–gil'''
| ''{{lang|tr|annemgiller}}'' || "my mother's family"
| From ''{{lang|tr|annem}},'' "my mother."
|-
| '''–gen'''
| ''{{lang|tr|altıgen}}''  || "hexagon"
| From ''{{lang|tr|altı}},'' "six."
|-
|}

The road sign in the photograph above illustrates several of these features:
* a native compound which does not obey vowel harmony: ''Orta+köy'' ("middle village"—a place name)
* a loanword also violating vowel harmony: ''viyadük'' (< French ''viaduc'' "viaduct")
* the possessive suffix'' -i''<sup>4</sup> harmonizing with the final vowel (and softening the ''k'' by consonant alternation): ''viyadüğü''{{citation needed|date=July 2014}}

The rules of vowel harmony may vary by regional dialect. The dialect of Turkish spoken in the Trabzon region of northeastern Turkey follows the reduced vowel harmony of [[Social:Old Anatolian Turkish|Old Anatolian Turkish]], with the additional complication of two missing vowels (ü and ı), thus there is no palatal harmony. It is likely that ''elün'' meant "your hand" in Old Anatolian. While the 2nd person singular possessive would vary between back and front vowel, -ün or -un, as in ''elün'' for "your hand" and ''kitabun'' for "your book", the lack of ü vowel in the Trabzon dialect means -un would be used in both of these cases — ''elun'' and ''kitabun''.<ref name=turkic>{{Cite book| publisher = Otto Harrassowitz Verlag| isbn = 978-3-447-05212-2| last1 = Boeschoten| first1 = Hendrik| last2 = Johanson| first2 = Lars| last3 = Milani| first3 = Vildan| title = Turkic Languages in Contact| date = 2006}}</ref>

== Word-accent ==
{{Details|Turkish phonology#Word-accent}}

With the exceptions stated below, Turkish words are oxytone (accented on the last syllable).

=== Exceptions to word-accent rules ===
# '''Place-names are not oxytone:'''<ref name="mundy"/> '''{{lang|tr|Anádolu}}''' (Anatolia), '''{{lang|tr|İstánbul}}'''. Most place names are accented on their first syllable as in '''{{lang|tr|Páris}}''' and '''{{lang|tr|Zónguldak}}.''' This holds true when place names are spelled the same way as common nouns, which are oxytone: '''{{lang|tr|mısír}}''' (maize), '''{{lang|tr|Mísır}}''' (Egypt), '''{{lang|tr|sirkecı̇́}}''' (vinegar-seller), '''{{lang|tr|Sı̇́rkeci}}''' (district in Istanbul), '''{{lang|tr|bebék}}''' (doll, baby), '''{{lang|tr|Bébek}}''' (district in Istanbul), '''{{lang|tr|ordú}}''' (army), '''{{lang|tr|Órdu}}''' (a Turkish city on the Black Sea).
#'''Foreign nouns usually retain their original accentuation''',<ref name="mundy"/> e.g., '''{{lang|tr|lokánta}}''' (< Italian {{lang|it|locanda}} "restaurant"), '''{{lang|tr|ólta}}''' (< Greek {{lang|el|βόλτα}} "fishing line"), '''{{lang|tr|gazéte}}''' (< Italian {{lang|it|gazzetta}} "newspaper")
#'''Some words about family members<ref name="deny"/> and living creatures<ref name="deny"/> have irregular accentuation:''' '''{{lang|tr|ánne}}''' (mother), '''{{lang|tr|ábla}}''' (older sister), '''{{lang|tr|görúmce}}''' (husband's sister), '''{{lang|tr|yénge}}''' (brother's wife), '''{{lang|tr|hála}}''' (paternal aunt), '''{{lang|tr|téyze}}''' (maternal aunt), '''{{lang|tr|ámca}}''' (paternal uncle), '''{{lang|tr|çekı̇́rge}}''' (grasshopper), '''{{lang|tr|karínca}}''' (ant), '''{{lang|tr|kokárca}}''' (skunk)
#'''Adverbs<ref name="deny"/> are usually accented on the first syllable''', e.g., '''{{lang|tr|şı̇́mdi}}''' (now), '''{{lang|tr|sónra}}''' (after), '''{{lang|tr|ánsızın}}''' (suddenly), '''{{lang|tr|gérçekten}}''' (really), (but '''{{lang|tr|gerçektén}}''' (from reality)), '''{{lang|tr|kíşın}}''' (during winter)
#'''Compound words<ref name="gabain"/> are accented on the end of the first element''', e.g., '''{{lang|tr|çíplak}}''' (naked), '''{{lang|tr|çırílçıplak}}''' (stark naked), '''{{lang|tr|bakán}}''' (minister), '''{{lang|tr|báşbakan}}''' (prime minister)
#Diminutives constructed by suffix '''–cik''' are accented on the first syllable, e.g., '''{{lang|tr|úfacık}}''' (very tiny), '''{{lang|tr|évcik}}''' (small house)
#'''Words with enclitic suffixes''', '''–le''' (meaning "with"), '''–ken''' (meaning "while"), '''–ce''' (creating an adverb), '''–leyin''' (meaning "in" or "during"), '''–me''' (negating the verbal stem), '''–yor''' (denoting the present tense)

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;"
! scope="col" | Enclitic suffix
! scope="col" | Turkish example
! scope="col" | Meaning in English
|-
| '''–le''' 
| ''{{lang|tr|memnuniyétle}}'' || with pleasure
|-
| '''–ken''' 
| ''{{lang|tr|yazárken}}'' || while writing
|-
| '''–ce''' 
| ''{{lang|tr|hayváncasına}}'' || bestially
|-
| '''–leyin''' 
| ''{{lang|tr|gecéleyin}}'' || by night
|-
| '''–me''' 
| ''{{lang|tr|anlamádı}}'' || he/she/it did not understand
|-
| '''–yor''' 
| ''{{lang|tr|gelı̇́yor}}'' || he/she/it is coming
|-
|}

* '''Enclitic words''', which shift the accentuation to the previous syllable, e.g., '''ol-''' (meaning to be), '''mi''' (denoting a question), '''gibi''' (meaning similar to), '''için''' (for), '''ki''' (that), '''de''' (too)

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: auto;"
! scope="col" | Enclitic suffix
! scope="col" | Turkish example
! scope="col" | Meaning in English
|-
| '''ol-''' as a separate word
| ''{{lang|tr|arkadaşím idi}}'' || he/she was my friend
|-
| '''ol-''' as a suffix
| ''{{lang|tr|arkadaşímdı}}'' || he/she was my friend
|-
| '''mi'''
| ''{{lang|tr|anlamadí mı}}'' || did he/she not understand?
|-
| '''gibi'''
| ''{{lang|tr|sizı̇́n gibi}}'' || like you
|-
| '''için''' 
| ''{{lang|tr|benı̇́m için}}'' || for me
|-
| '''ki''' 
| ''{{lang|tr|diyorlár ki ólmıyacak}}'' || they are saying that it won't happen
|-
| '''de''' 
| ''{{lang|tr|biz de}}'' || us too
|-
|}

== Syntax ==

=== Sentence groups ===
Turkish has two groups of sentences: verbal and nominal sentences. In the case of a verbal sentence, the predicate is a finite verb, while the predicate in nominal sentence will have either no overt verb or a verb in the form of the copula ''ol'' or ''y'' (variants of "be"). Examples of both are given below:<ref name=":14">{{Cite book|title=Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar|last1=Goksel|first1=Asli|last2=Kerslake|first2=Celia|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|isbn=0-415-11494-2}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
!Sentence type
! colspan="2" |Turkish
!English
|-
|
|Subject
|Predicate
|
|-
|Verbal
|Necla
|okula gitti
|Necla went to school
|-
|Nominal (no verb)
|Necla
|öğretmen
|Necla is a teacher
|-
|(copula)
|Necla
|ev-de-'''y'''-miş (hyphens delineate suffixes)
|Apparently Necla is/was at home
|}

==== Negation ====
The two groups of sentences have different ways of forming negation. A nominal sentence can be negated with the addition of the word ''değil''. For example, the sentence above would become ''Necla öğretmen değil'' ('Necla is not a teacher'). However, the verbal sentence requires the addition of a negative suffix ''-me'' to the verb (the suffix comes after the stem but before the tense): ''Necla okula gitmedi'' ('Necla did not go to school').<ref name=":03">{{Cite book|title=Turkish Grammar|last=Underhill|first=Robert|publisher=The MIT Press|year=1976|isbn=0-262-21006-1|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts}}</ref>

==== Yes/no questions ====
In the case of a verbal sentence, an interrogative clitic ''mi'' is added after the verb and stands alone, for example ''Necla okula gitti mi?'' ('Did Necla go to school?'). In the case of a nominal sentence, then ''mi'' comes after the predicate but before the personal ending, so for example ''Necla, siz öğretmen misiniz''? ('Necla, are you [formal, plural] a teacher?').<ref name=":03" />

===Word order===
Word order in simple Turkish sentences is generally [[Social:Subject–object–verb|subject–object–verb]], as in Korean and [[Social:Latin|Latin]], but unlike English, for verbal sentences and subject-predicate for nominal sentences. However, as Turkish possesses a case-marking system, and most grammatical relations are shown using morphological markers, often the SOV structure has diminished relevance and may vary. The SOV structure may thus be considered a "pragmatic word order" of language, one that does not rely on word order for grammatical purposes.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Thompson|first=Sandra|date=April 1978|title=Modern English from a Typological Point of View: Some Implications of the Function of Word Order|journal=Linguistische Berlichte|volume=1978|issue=54|pages=19–35|via=ProQuest}}</ref>

==== Immediately preverbal ====

Consider the following simple sentence which demonstrates that the focus in Turkish is on the element that immediately precedes the verb:<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Function of Word Order in Turkish Grammar|last=Erguvanlı|first=Eser Emine|publisher=University of California Press|year=1984|isbn=0-520-09955-9|series=Linguistics Vol. 106|location=Berkeley}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
! Word order
! width=50% | Example
! width=50% | Focus
|-
|SOV
|{{interlinear
 |Ahmet yumurta-yı yedi
 |Ahmet egg.ACC ate
 |Ahmet ate the egg}}
|unmarked
|-
|SVO
|{{interlinear
 |Ahmet yedi yumurta-yı
 |Ahmet ate egg.ACC
 |Ahmet ate the egg}}
|the focus is on the subject: Ahmet (it was Ahmet who ate the egg)
|-
|OVS
|{{interlinear
 |Yumurta-yı yedi Ahmet
 |egg.ACC ate Ahmet
 |Ahmet ate the egg}}
|the focus is on the object: egg (it was an egg that Ahmet ate)
|}

==== Postpredicate ====

The postpredicate position signifies what is referred to as background information in Turkish — information that is assumed to be known to both the speaker and the listener, or information that is included in the context. Consider the following examples:<ref name=":14" />
{| class="wikitable"
!Sentence type
!Word order
!
!
|-
|Nominal
|S-predicate
|Bu ev güzelmiş (apparently this house is beautiful)
|unmarked
|-
|
|Predicate-s
|Güzelmiş bu ev (it is apparently beautiful, this house)
|it is understood that the sentence is about this house
|-
|Verbal
|SOV
|Bana da bir kahve getir (get me a coffee too)
|unmarked
|-
|
|
|Bana da getir bir kahve (get me one too, a coffee)
|it is understood that it is a coffee that the speaker wants
|}

==== Topic ====

There has been some debate among linguists whether Turkish is a subject-prominent (like English) or topic-prominent (like Japanese and Korean) language, with recent scholarship implying that it is indeed both subject and topic-prominent.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.turkofoni.org/files/a_typological_approach_to_sentence_structure_in_turkish-yilmaz_kili_arslan_trakya_uni.pdf|title=A Typological Approach to Sentence Structure in Turkish|last=Kiliçasaslan|first=Yılmaz|access-date=2017-07-28|archive-date=2015-05-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150530055431/http://www.turkofoni.org/files/a_typological_approach_to_sentence_structure_in_turkish-yilmaz_kili_arslan_trakya_uni.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> This has direct implications for word order as it is possible for the subject to be included in the [[Social:Verb phrase|verb-phrase]] in Turkish. There can be S/O inversion in sentences where the topic is of greater importance than the subject.

== Grammar ==

Turkish is an [[Social:Agglutinative language|agglutinative language]] and frequently uses [[Social:Affix|affix]]es, and specifically suffixes, or endings.{{efn|This section draws heavily on Lewis (2001)<ref name=lewis2001/> and, to a lesser extent, Lewis (1953).<ref name=lewis1953/> Only the most important references are specifically flagged with footnotes.}} One word can have many affixes and these can also be used to create new words, such as creating a verb from a noun, or a noun from a verbal root (see the section on Word formation). Most affixes indicate the grammatical function of the word.<ref name=lewis2001/>{{rp|Chapter XIV}}
The only native prefixes are alliterative intensifying syllables used with adjectives or adverbs: for example '''''sım'''sıcak'' ("boiling hot" < ''sıcak'') and '''''mas'''mavi'' ("bright blue" < ''mavi'').{{efn|"The prefix, which is accented, is modelled on the first syllable of the simple adjective or adverb but with the substitution of '''m, p, r''', or '''s''' for the last consonant of that syllable.<ref name=lewis2001/>{{rp|55}} The prefix retains the first vowel of the base form and thus exhibits a form of reverse vowel harmony.}}

The extensive use of affixes can give rise to long words, e.g. ''Çekoslovakyalılaştıramadıklarımızdanmışsınızcasına'', meaning "In the manner of you being one of those that we apparently couldn't manage to convert to Czechoslovakian". While this case is contrived, long words frequently occur in normal Turkish, as in this heading of a newspaper obituary column: ''Bayramlaşamadıklarımız'' (Bayram [festival]-Recipr-Impot-Partic-Plur-PossPl1; "Those of our number with whom we cannot exchange the season's greetings").{{efn|This "splendid word" appeared at the time of ''Bayram'', the festival marking the end of the [[Religion:Ramadan|month of fasting]].<ref name=lewis2001/>{{rp|287}}}} Another example can be seen in the final word of this heading of the online Turkish Spelling Guide (''İmlâ Kılavuzu''): ''Dilde birlik, ulusal birliğin vazgeçilemezlerindendir'' ("Unity in language is among the indispensables [dispense-Pass-Impot-Plur-PossS3-Abl-Copula] of national unity ~ Linguistic unity is a ''[[Philosophy:Sine qua non|sine qua non]]'' of national unity").<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dilimiz.com/dil/imlakilavuzu/TDK/imlaanasayfa.htm |title=İmlâ Kilavuzu |publisher=Dilimiz.com |access-date=2011-11-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111006001226/http://www.dilimiz.com/dil/imlakilavuzu/TDK/imlaanasayfa.htm |archive-date=2011-10-06 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

=== Nouns ===

==== Gender ====
Turkish does not have grammatical gender and the sex of persons do not affect the forms of words. The third-person pronoun ''{{lang|tr|o}}'' may refer to "he", "she" or "it." Despite this lack, Turkish still has ways of indicating gender in nouns:

# Most '''domestic animals''' have male and female forms, e.g., ''{{lang|tr|aygır}}'' (stallion), ''{{lang|tr|kısrak}}'' (mare), ''{{lang|tr|boğa}}'' (bull), ''{{lang|tr|inek}}'' (cow). 
# For '''other animals''', the sex may be indicated by adding the word ''{{lang|tr|dişi}}'' (female) before the corresponding noun, e.g., ''{{lang|tr|dişi kedi}}'' (female cat).
# For '''people''', the female sex may be indicated by adding the word ''{{lang|tr|kız}}'' (girl) or ''{{lang|tr|kadın}}'' (woman), e.g., ''{{lang|tr|kadın kahraman}}'' (heroine) instead of ''{{lang|tr|kahraman}}'' (hero).
# Some foreign words of [[Social:French language|French]] or [[Social:Arabic language|Arabic]] origin already have separate female forms, e.g., ''{{lang|tr|aktris}}'' (actress).
# The Serbo-Croat feminine suffix –ica is used in three borrowings: ''{{lang|tr|kraliçe}}'' (queen), ''{{lang|tr|imparatoriçe}}'' (empress) and ''{{lang|tr|çariçe}}'' (tsarina). This suffix was used in the neologism ''{{lang|tr|tanrıça}}'' (< Old Turkic ''{{lang|otk|tanrı}}'' "god").

==== Case ====

There is no definite article in Turkish, but definiteness of the object is implied when the accusative ending is used (see below). Turkish nouns decline by taking case endings. There are six [[Social:Declension|noun cases]] in Turkish, with all the endings following vowel harmony (shown in the table using the shorthand superscript notation). Since the postposition ''ile'' often gets suffixed onto the noun, some analyze it as an instrumental case, although in formal speech it takes the genitive with personal pronouns, singular demonstratives, and interrogative ''kim''. The plural marker ''-ler'' ² immediately follows the noun before any case or other affixes (e.g. ''köylerin'' "of the villages").{{citation needed|date=July 2014}}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!rowspan="2"|Case
!rowspan="2"|Ending
!colspan="2"|Examples
!rowspan="2"|Meaning
|-
!''köy'' "village"
!''ağaç'' "tree"
|-
|Nominative
|∅ (none)
|''köy''
|''ağaç''
|(the) village/tree
|-
|Accusative
|''-i'' <sup>4</sup>
|''köyü''
|''ağa'''c'''ı''
|the village/tree
|-
|Genitive
|''-in'' <sup>4</sup>
|''köyün''
|''ağa'''c'''ın''
|the village's/tree's<br />of the village/tree
|-
|Dative
|''-e'' ²
|''köye''
|''ağa'''c'''a''
|to the village/tree
|-
|Locative
|''-de'' ²
|''köyde''
|''ağaç'''t'''a''
|in/on/at the village/tree
|-
|Ablative
|''-den'' ²
|''köyden''
|''ağaç'''t'''an''
|from the village/tree
|-
|Instrumental
|''-le'' ²
|''köyle''
|''ağaçla''
|with the village/tree
|}

The accusative case marker is used only for definite objects; compare ''(bir) ağaç gördük'' "we saw '''a''' tree" with ''ağacı gördük'' "we saw '''the''' tree".{{efn|Because it is also used for the indefinite accusative, Lewis uses the term "absolute case" in preference to "nominative".<ref name=lewis2001/>{{rp|28}}}} The plural marker ''-ler'' ² is generally not used when a class or category is meant: ''ağaç gördük'' can equally well mean "we saw trees [as we walked through the forest]"—as opposed to ''ağaçları gördük'' "we saw the trees [in question]".{{citation needed|date=February 2013}}

The declension of ''ağaç'' illustrates two important features of Turkish phonology: consonant assimilation in [[Social:Suffix|suffix]]es (''ağaç'''t'''an, ağaç'''t'''a'') and voicing of final consonants before vowels (''ağa'''c'''ın, ağa'''c'''a, ağa'''c'''ı'').{{citation needed|date=February 2013}}

Additionally, nouns can take suffixes that assign person: for example ''-imiz'' <sup>4</sup>, "our". With the addition of the copula (for example ''-im'' <sup>4</sup>, "I am") complete sentences can be formed. The interrogative particle ''mi'' <sup>4</sup> immediately follows the word being questioned, and also follows vowel harmony: ''köye mi?'' "[going] to the village?", ''ağaç mı?'' "[is it a] tree?".{{citation needed|date=February 2013}}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Turkish
!English
|-
|''ev''
|align="right"|(the) house
|-
|''evler''
|align="right"|(the) houses
|-
|''evin''
|align="right"|your (sing.) house
|-
|''eviniz''
|align="right"|your (pl./formal) house
|-
|''evim''
|align="right"|my house
|-
|''evimde''
|align="right"|at my house
|-
|''evlerinizin''
|align="right"|of your houses
|-
|''evlerinizden''
|align="right"|from your houses
|-
|''evlerinizdendi''
|align="right"|(he/she/it) was from your houses
|-
|''evlerinizdenmiş''
|align="right"|(he/she/it) was (apparently/said to be) from your houses
|-
|''Evinizdeyim.''
|align="right"|I am at your house.
|-
|''Evinizdeymişim.''
|align="right"|I was (apparently) at your house.
|-
|''Evinizde miyim?''
|align="right"|Am I at your house?
|}

=== Personal pronouns ===

The Turkish personal pronouns in the nominative case are ''ben'' (1s), ''sen'' (2s), ''o'' (3s), ''biz'' (1pl), ''siz'' (2pl, or 2h), and ''onlar'' (3pl). They are declined regularly with some exceptions: ''benim'' (1s gen.); ''bizim'' (1pl gen.); ''bana'' (1s dat.); ''sana'' (2s dat.); and the oblique forms of ''o'' use the root ''on''. As mentioned before, all demonstrative singular and personal pronouns take the genitive when ''ile'' is affixed onto it: ''benimle'' (1s ins.), ''bizimle'' (1pl ins.); but ''on'''un'''la'' (3s ins.), ''onlarla'' (3pl ins.). All other pronouns (reflexive ''kendi'' and so on) are declined regularly.{{citation needed|date=July 2014}}

==== Noun phrases (''tamlama'') ====

Two nouns, or groups of nouns, may be joined in either of two ways:

* definite (possessive) compound (''belirtili tamlama''). E.g. ''Türkiye'nin sesi'' "the voice of Turkey (radio station)": the voice belonging to Turkey. Here the relationship is shown by the genitive ending ''-in''<sup>4</sup> added to the first noun; the second noun has the third-person suffix of possession {{lang|tr|-(s)i}}<sup>4</sup>.
* indefinite (qualifying) compound (''belirtisiz tamlama''). E.g. ''Türkiye Cumhuriyeti'' "Turkey-Republic{{efn|Lewis points out that "an indefinite izafet group can be turned into intelligible (though not necessarily normal) English by the use of a hyphen".<ref name=lewis2001/>{{rp|42}}}} = the Republic of Turkey": not the republic belonging to Turkey, but the Republic that is Turkey. Here the first noun has no ending; but the second noun has the ending {{lang|tr|(s)i}}<sup>4</sup>—the same as in definite compounds.{{citation needed|date=July 2014}}

The following table illustrates these principles.<ref name=lewis2001>{{cite book|last=Lewis|first=Geoffrey|title=Turkish Grammar|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2001|isbn=0-19-870036-9}}</ref>{{rp|41–47}} In some cases the constituents of the compounds are themselves compounds; for clarity these subsidiary compounds are marked with [square brackets]. The suffixes involved in the linking are underlined. If the second noun group already had a possessive suffix (because it is a compound by itself), no further suffix is added.

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left:1em;"
|+ Linked nouns and noun groups
|-
! Definite (possessive) || Indefinite (qualifier) || Complement || Meaning
|-
| ''kimse<u>nin</u>'' || || ''yanıt<u>ı</u>'' || nobody's answer
|-
| || ''"kimse"'' || ''yanıt<u>ı</u>'' || the answer "nobody"
|-
| ''Atatürk'<u>ün</u>'' || || ''ev<u>i</u>'' || Atatürk's house
|-
| || ''Atatürk'' || ''Bulvar<u>ı</u>'' || Atatürk Boulevard (named after, not belonging to Atatürk)
|-
| ''Orhan'<u>ın</u>'' || || ''ad<u>ı</u>'' || Orhan's name
|-
| || ''"Orhan"'' || ''ad<u>ı</u>'' || the name "Orhan"
|-
| || ''r'' || ''sessiz<u>i</u>'' || the consonant ''r''
|-
| [''r sessizi'']''<u>nin</u>'' || || ''söyleniş<u>i</u>'' || pronunciation of the consonant ''r''
|-
| || ''Türk'' || [''Dil Kurumu''] || Turkish language-association
|-
| || [''Türk Dili''] || ''Dergi<u>si</u>'' || Turkish-language magazine
|-
| || ''Ford'' || [''aile arabası''] || Ford family car
|-
| ''Ford'<u>un</u>'' || || [''aile arabası''] || (Mr) Ford's family car
|-
| [''Ford ailesi'']''<u>nin</u>'' || || ''araba<u>sı</u>'' || the Ford family's car{{efn|For other possible permutations of this vehicle, see Lewis (2001):46.<ref name=lewis2001/>}}
|-
| || ''Ankara'' || [''Kız Lisesi'']{{efn|"It is most important to note that the third-person suffix is not repeated though theoretically one might have expected ''Ankara [Kız Lisesi]<u>si</u>''.<ref name=lewis2001/>{{rp|45 footnote}}}} || Ankara Girls' School
|-
| || [''yıl sonu''] || ''sınavlar<u>ı</u>'' || year-end examinations
|-
| ''Bulgaristan'<u>ın</u>'' || || [''İstanbul Başkonsolosluğu''] || the Istanbul Consulate-General of Bulgaria (located in Istanbul, but belonging to Bulgaria)
|-
| || [ [''İstanbul Üniversitesi''] [''Edebiyat Fakültesi''] ] || [ [''Türk Edebiyatı''] ''Profesörü''] || Professor of Turkish Literature in the Faculty of Literature of the University of Istanbul
|-
| || ''ne oldum'' || ''deli<u>si</u>'' || "what-have-I-become!"{{efn|Note the similarity with the French phrase ''un m'as-tu-vu'' "a have-you-seen-me?", i.e., a vain and pretentious person.}} madman = parvenu who gives himself airs
|}

As the last example shows, the qualifying expression may be a substantival sentence rather than a noun or noun group.{{efn|The term ''substantival sentence'' is Lewis's.<ref name=lewis2001/>{{rp|257}}}}

There is a third way of linking the nouns where both nouns take no suffixes (''takısız tamlama''). However, in this case the first noun acts as an adjective,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Demir |first=Celal |date=2007 |title=Türkiye Türkçesi Gramerlerinde İsim Tamlaması Sorunu ve Bir Tasnif Denemesi |trans-title=The Problem of Adjective in Turkish: An Attempt of Classification |url=http://turkoloji.cu.edu.tr/YENI%20TURK%20DILI/celal_demir_gramer_isim_tamlamasi_sorunu.pdf |journal=Türk Dünyası İncelemeleri Dergisi [Journal of Turkish World Studies] |language=tr |volume=7 |issue=1 |pages=27–54 |access-date=2013-03-29 |archive-date=2013-05-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130502230603/http://turkoloji.cu.edu.tr/YENI%20TURK%20DILI/celal_demir_gramer_isim_tamlamasi_sorunu.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> e.g. ''Demir kapı'' (iron gate), ''elma yanak'' ("apple cheek", i.e. red cheek), ''kömür göz'' ("coal eye", i.e. black eye) :

=== Adjectives ===
Turkish adjectives are not [[Social:Declension|declined]]. However most adjectives can also be used as nouns, in which case they are declined: e.g. {{lang|tr|güzel}} ("beautiful") → {{lang|tr|güzeller}} ("(the) beautiful ones / people"). Used attributively, adjectives precede the nouns they modify. The adjectives {{lang|tr|var}} ("existent") and {{lang|tr|yok}} ("non-existent") are used in many cases where English would use "there is" or "have", ''e.g.'' {{lang|tr|süt yok}} ("there is no milk", ''lit.'' "(the) milk (is) non-existent"); the construction "''noun 1''-GEN ''noun 2''-POSS {{lang|tr|var/yok}}" can be translated "''noun 1'' has/doesn't have ''noun 2''"; {{lang|tr|imparatorun elbisesi yok}} "the emperor has no clothes" ("(the) emperor-''of'' clothes-''his'' non-existent"); {{lang|tr|kedimin ayakkabıları yoktu}} ("my cat had no shoes", ''lit.'' "cat-''my''-''of'' shoe-''plur.''-''its'' non-existent-''past tense''").{{citation needed|date=July 2014}}

=== Verbs ===
Turkish verbs indicate person. They can be made negative, potential ("can"), or non-potential ("cannot"). Furthermore, Turkish verbs show [[Social:Grammatical tense|tense]] (present, past, future, and aorist), mood ([[Conditional mood|conditional]], imperative, inferential, necessitative, and optative), and aspect. Negation is expressed by the [[Social:Suffix|suffix]] ''-me²-'' immediately following the stem.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Turkish
!English
|-
|{{lang|tr|gel-}}
|align="right"|(to) come
|-
|{{lang|tr|gelebil-}}
|align="right"|(to) be able to come
|-
|{{lang|tr|gelme-}}
|align="right"|not (to) come
|-
|{{lang|tr|geleme-}}
|align="right"|(to) be unable to come
|-
|{{lang|tr|gelememiş}}
|align="right"|Apparently (s)he couldn't come
|-
|{{lang|tr|gelebilecek}}
|align="right"|(s)he'll be able to come
|-
|{{lang|tr|gelmeyebilir}}
|align="right"|(s)he may (possibly) not come
|-
|{{lang|tr|gelebilirsen}}
|align="right"|if you can come
|-
|{{lang|tr|gelinir}}
|align="right"|(''passive'') one comes, people come
|-
|{{lang|tr|gelebilmeliydin}}
|align="right"| you should have been able to come
|-
|{{lang|tr|gelebilseydin}}
|align="right"| if you could have come
|-
|{{lang|tr|gelmeliydin}}
|align="right"| you should have come
|}

=== Verb tenses ===
(''Note''. For the sake of simplicity the term "tense" is used here throughout, although for some forms "aspect" or "mood" might be more appropriate.) There are 9 simple and 20 compound tenses in Turkish. 9 simple tenses are simple past (''di'li geçmiş''), inferential past (''miş'li geçmiş''), present continuous, simple present (aorist), future, optative, subjunctive, necessitative ("must") and imperative.<ref>[http://tr.scribd.com/doc/115291192/TURKISH-GRAMMAR-UPDATED-ACADEMIC-EDITION-YUKSEL-GOKNEL-OCTOBER-2012-signed-pdf Yüksel Göknel:Turkish Grammar] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130516044640/http://tr.scribd.com/doc/115291192/TURKISH-GRAMMAR-UPDATED-ACADEMIC-EDITION-YUKSEL-GOKNEL-OCTOBER-2012-signed-pdf |date=2013-05-16 }}{{full citation needed|date=July 2014}}</ref> There are three groups of compound forms. Story (''hikaye'') is the witnessed past of the above forms (except command), rumor (''rivayet'') is the unwitnessed past of the above forms (except simple past and command), conditional (''koşul'') is the conditional form of the first five basic tenses.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.turkishstudies.net/Makaleler/1934555583_85Kad%c4%b1u%20Spartak_S-1593-1603.pdf |title=Turkish Studies Vol 7/3 |language=tr |access-date=2013-03-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130313043006/http://www.turkishstudies.net/Makaleler/1934555583_85Kad%c4%b1u%20Spartak_S-1593-1603.pdf |archive-date=2013-03-13 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In the example below the second person singular of the verb ''gitmek'' ("go"), stem ''gid-/git-'', is shown.
{| class="sortable wikitable"
|-
!English of the basic form
!Basic tense
!Story (''hikâye'')
!Rumor (''rivayet'')
!Condition (''koşul'')
|-
|you went || ''gittin'' || ''gittiydin'' || – || ''gittiysen''
|-
|you have gone || ''gitmişsin'' || ''gitmiştin'' ||  ''gitmişmişsin'' || ''gitmişsen''
|-
|you are going || ''gidiyorsun'' || ''gidiyordun'' || ''gidiyormuşsun'' || ''gidiyorsan''
|-
|you (are wont to) go || ''gidersin'' || ''giderdin'' || ''gidermişsin'' || ''gidersen''
|-
|you will go || ''gideceksin'' || ''gidecektin'' || ''gidecekmişsin'' || ''gideceksen''
|-
|if only you go || ''gitsen'' || ''gitseydin'' || ''gitseymişsin'' || –
|-
|may you go  || ''gidesin'' || ''gideydin'' || ''gideymişsin'' || –
|-
|you must go || ''gitmelisin'' || ''gitmeliydin'' || ''gitmeliymişsin'' || –
|-
|go! (imperative) || ''git'' || – || – || –
|}

There are also so-called combined verbs, which are created by suffixing certain verb stems (like ''bil'' or ''ver'') to the original stem of a verb. ''Bil'' is the suffix for the sufficiency mood. It is the equivalent of the English auxiliary verbs "able to", "can" or "may". ''Ver'' is the suffix for the swiftness mood, ''kal'' for the perpetuity mood and ''yaz'' for the approach ("almost") mood.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.dersimizedebiyat.com/icerik_detay.asp?icr=63&bs=S%F6zc%FCk%20(%20Kelime%20)%20T%FCrleri%20-%20Fiiller%20(%20Eylemler%20) |title=Dersimiz Edebiyat Online course |language=tr |publisher=Dersimizedebiyat.com |access-date=2013-03-29 |archive-date=2013-05-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130518100639/http://www.dersimizedebiyat.com/icerik_detay.asp?icr=63&bs=S%F6zc%FCk%20(%20Kelime%20)%20T%FCrleri%20-%20Fiiller%20(%20Eylemler%20) |url-status=live }}</ref> Thus, while ''gittin'' means "you went", ''gidebildin'' means "you could go" and ''gidiverdin'' means "you went swiftly". The tenses of the combined verbs are formed the same way as for simple verbs.

==== Attributive verbs (participles) ====

Turkish verbs have attributive forms, including present,{{efn|The conventional translation of the film title ''Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam'', ''The Man Who Saved the World'', uses the past tense. Semantically, his saving the world takes place though in the (narrative) present.}} similar to the English present participle (with the ending {{italics correction|''-en''}}<sup>2</sup>); future ({{italics correction|''-ecek''}}<sup>2</sup>); indirect/inferential past ({{italics correction|''-miş''}}<sup>4</sup>); and aorist ({{italics correction|''-er''}}<sup>2</sup> or {{italics correction|''-ir''}}<sup>4</sup>).

The most important function of some of these attributive verbs is to form modifying phrases equivalent to the relative clauses found in most European languages. The subject of the verb in an {{italics correction|''-en''}}<sup>2</sup> form is (possibly implicitly) in the third person (he/she/it/they); this form, when used in a modifying phrase, does not change according to number. The other attributive forms used in these constructions are the future ({{italics correction|''-ecek''}}<sup>2</sup>) and an older form ({{italics correction|''-dik''}}<sup>4</sup>), which covers both present and past meanings.{{efn|See Lewis (2001):163–165, 260–262 for an exhaustive treatment.<ref name=lewis2001/>}} These two forms take "personal endings", which have the same form as the possessive suffixes but indicate the person and possibly number of the subject of the attributive verb; for example, ''yediğ'''im''''' means "what '''I''' eat", ''yediğ'''in''''' means "what '''you''' eat", and so on. The use of these "personal or relative participles" is illustrated in the following table, in which the examples are presented according to the grammatical case which would be seen in the equivalent English relative clause.{{efn|For the terms ''personal'' and ''relative'' participle see Lewis (1958):98 and Lewis (2001):163 respectively. Most of the examples are taken from Lewis (2001).<ref name=lewis2001/>}}

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!colspan="2"|English equivalent
!rowspan="2"|Example
|-
!Case of relative pronoun
!Pronoun
|-
|Nominative
|who, which/that
|{{interlinear|şimdi konuşan adam|now speaking man|the man (who is) now speaking}}
|-
|Genitive
|whose (nom.)
|{{interlinear|babası şimdi konuşan adam|father-is now speaking man|the man whose father is now speaking}}
|-
|
|whose (acc.)
|{{interlinear|babasını dün gördüğüm adam|father-is-ACC yesterday seen-my man|the man whose father I saw yesterday}}
|-
|
|at whose
|{{interlinear|resimlerine baktığımız ressam|pictures-is-to looked-our artist|the artist whose pictures we looked at}}
|-
|
|of which
|{{interlinear|muhtarı seçildiği köy|mayor-its been-chosen-his village|the village of which he was elected mayor}}<!--Note to future editors: ''muhtarı seçildiği köy'' (the village of which he was elected mayor) and ''muhtarın seçildiği köy'' (the village where the mayor was elected) have absolutely different meanings.-->
|-
|
|of which
|{{interlinear|muhtarı seçilmek istediği köy|the village of which he wishes to be elected mayor}}<!--Note to future editors: ''muhtarı seçildiği köy'' (the village of which he was elected mayor) and ''muhtarın seçildiği köy'' (the village where the mayor was elected) have absolutely different meanings.-->
|-
|Remaining cases (incl. prepositions)
|whom, which
|{{interlinear|yazdığım mektup|written-my letter|the letter (which) I wrote}}
|-
|
|from which
|{{interlinear|çıktığımız kapı|emerged-our door|the door from which we emerged}}
|-
|
|on which
|{{interlinear|geldikleri vapur|come-their ship|the ship they came on}}
|-
|
|which + subordinate clause
|{{interlinear|yaklaştığını anladığı hapishane günleri|approach-their-ACC understood-his prison days-its|the prison days (which) he knew were approaching{{efn|This more complex example from Orhan Pamuk's ''Kar'' (''Snow'') contains a nested structure: <nowiki>[</nowiki>''which he knew'' <nowiki>[</nowiki>''were approaching''<nowiki>]]</nowiki>. Maureen Freely's more succinct and idiomatic translation is ''the days in prison he knew lay ahead''. Pamuk uses the spelling ''hapisane''.}}{{efn|From the perspective of Turkish grammar ''yaklaştığını anladığı'' is exactly parallel to ''babasını gördüğüm'' ("whose father I saw"), and could therefore be paraphrased as "whose approaching he understood".}}}
|}

== Vocabulary ==

=== Word formation ===
Turkish extensively uses agglutination to [[Social:Word formation|form new words]] from nouns and verbal stems. The majority of Turkish words originate from the application of derivative suffixes to a relatively small set of core vocabulary.<ref name=":13">{{Cite book|title=Turkish: A Comprehensive Grammar|last1=Goksel|first1=Asli|last2=Kerslake|first2=Celia|publisher=Routledge|year=2005|isbn=0-415-11494-2|pages=43–48}}</ref>

Turkish obeys certain principles when it comes to suffixation. Most suffixes in Turkish will have more than one form, depending on the vowels and consonants in the root- vowel harmony rules will apply; consonant-initial suffixes will follow the voiced/ voiceless character of the consonant in the final unit of the root; and in the case of vowel-initial suffixes an additional consonant may be inserted if the root ends in a vowel, or the suffix may lose its initial vowel. There is also a prescribed order of affixation of suffixes- as a rule of thumb, derivative suffixes precede inflectional suffixes which are followed by [[Social:Clitic|clitic]]s, as can be seen in the example set of words derived from a substantive root below:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Turkish
!Components
!English
!Word class
|-
|''göz''
|''göz''
|eye
|Noun
|-
|''gözlük''
|''göz + -lük''
|eyeglasses
|Noun
|-
|''gözlükçü''
|''göz + -lük + -çü''
|optician
|Noun
|-
|''gözlükçülük''
|''göz + -lük + -çü + -lük''
|optician's trade
|Noun
|-
|''gözlem''
|''göz + -lem''
|observation
|Noun
|-
|''gözlemci''
|''göz + -lem + -ci''
|observer
|Noun
|-
|''gözle-''
|''göz + -le''
|observe
|Verb (order)
|-
|''gözlemek''
|''göz + -le + -mek''
|to observe
|Verb (infinitive)
|-
|''gözetlemek''
|''göz + -et + -le + -mek''
|to peep
|Verb (infinitive)
|}

Another example, starting from a verbal root:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Turkish
!Components
!English
!Word class
|-
|''yat-''
|''yat-''
|lie down
|Verb (order)
|-
|''yatmak''
|''yat-mak''
|to lie down
|Verb (infinitive)
|-
|''yatık''
|''yat- + -(ı)k''
|leaning
|Adjective
|-
|''yatak''
|''yat- + -ak''
|bed, place to sleep
|Noun
|-
|''yatay''
|''yat- + -ay''
|horizontal
|Adjective
|-
|''yatkın''
|''yat- + -gın''
|inclined to; stale (from lying too long)
|Adjective
|-
|''yatır-''
|''yat- + -(ı)r-''
|lay down
|Verb (order)
|-
|''yatırmak''
|''yat- + -(ı)r-mak''
|to lay down something/someone
|Verb (infinitive)
|-
|''yatırım''
|''yat- + -(ı)r- + -(ı)m''
|laying down; deposit, investment
|Noun
|-
|''yatırımcı''
|''yat- + -(ı)r- + -(ı)m + -cı''
|depositor, investor
|Noun
|}

New words are also frequently formed by compounding two existing words into a new one, as in German. Compounds can be of two types- bare and {{lang|tr|(s)I}}. The bare compounds, both nouns and adjectives are effectively two words juxtaposed without the addition of suffixes for example the word for girlfriend {{lang|tr|kızarkadaş}} ({{lang|tr|kız+arkadaş}}) or black pepper {{lang|tr|karabiber}} ({{lang|tr|kara+biber}}). A few examples of compound words are given below:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Turkish
!English
!Constituent words
!Literal meaning
|-
|''pazartesi''
|Monday
|''pazar'' ("Sunday") and ''ertesi'' ("after")
|after Sunday
|-
|''bilgisayar''
|computer
|''bilgi'' ("information") and ''say-'' ("to count")
|information counter
|-
|''gökdelen''
|skyscraper
|''gök'' ("sky") and ''del-'' ("to pierce")
|sky piercer
|-
|''başparmak''
|thumb
|''baş'' ("prime") and ''parmak'' ("finger")
|primary finger
|-
|''önyargı''
|prejudice
|''ön'' ("before") and ''yargı'' ("splitting; judgement")
|fore-judging
|}
However, the majority of compound words in Turkish are {{lang|tr|(s)I}} compounds, which means that the second word will be marked by the 3rd person possessive suffix. A few such examples are given in the table below (note [[Social:Vowel harmony|vowel harmony]]):
{| class="wikitable"
!Turkish
!English
!Constituent words
!Possessive Suffix
|-
|''el çantası''
|handbag
|''el'' (hand) and ''çanta'' (bag)
|'''''+sı'''''
|-
|''masa örtüsü''
|tablecloth
|''masa'' (table) and ''örtü'' (cover)
|'''''+sü'''''
|-
|''çay bardağı''
|tea glass
|''çay'' (tea) and ''bardak'' (glass)
|'''''+ı''''' (the k changes to ğ)
|}

== Writing system ==
[[File:Ataturk-September 20, 1928.jpg|thumb|upright|Atatürk introducing the new Turkish alphabet to the people of Kayseri. September 20, 1928. (Cover of the French ''L'Illustration'' magazine)]]

Turkish is written using a Latin alphabet introduced in 1928 by [[Biography:Mustafa Kemal Atatürk|Atatürk]] to replace the Ottoman Turkish alphabet, a version of Perso-Arabic alphabet. The Ottoman alphabet marked only three different vowels—long ''ā, ū'' and ''ī''—and included several redundant consonants, such as variants of ''z'' (which were distinguished in Arabic but not in Turkish). The omission of short vowels in the Arabic script was claimed to make it particularly unsuitable for Turkish, which has eight vowels.<ref name=zimmerorgun/>

The reform of the script was an important step in the cultural reforms of the period. The task of preparing the new alphabet and selecting the necessary modifications for sounds specific to Turkish was entrusted to a [[Social:Turkish alphabet#Modern Turkish alphabet|Language Commission]] composed of prominent linguists, academics, and writers. The introduction of the new Turkish alphabet was supported by public education centers opened throughout the country, cooperation with publishing companies, and encouragement by Atatürk himself, who toured the country teaching the new letters to the public.<ref name="Dilacar">{{cite journal|last=Dilaçar|first=Agop|title=Atatürk ve Yazım|journal=Türk Dili|issn=1301-465X|volume=35|issue=307|url=http://www.dildernegi.org.tr/TR/BelgeGoster.aspx?F6E10F8892433CFFAAF6AA849816B2EFC3C6D81741DBEB05|access-date=2007-03-19|year=1977|language=tr|archive-date=2007-02-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070214015221/http://www.dildernegi.org.tr/TR/BelgeGoster.aspx?F6E10F8892433CFFAAF6AA849816B2EFC3C6D81741DBEB05|url-status=live}}</ref> As a result, there was a dramatic increase in literacy from its original, pre-modern levels.<ref>{{cite book|last=Coulmas|first=Florian|title=Writing Systems of the World|url=https://archive.org/details/writingsystemsof0000coul|url-access=registration|publisher=Blackwell Publishers Ltd, Oxford|year=1989|isbn=0-631-18028-1|pages=243–244}}</ref>{{qn|date=July 2022|reason=Source may lack any mention literacy rates.}}

The Latin alphabet was applied to the Turkish language for educational purposes even before the 20th-century reform. Instances include a 1635 Latin-Albanian dictionary by Frang Bardhi, who also incorporated several sayings in the Turkish language, as an appendix to his work (e.g. ''alma agatsdan irak duschamas''{{efn|In modern Turkish spelling: {{lang|tr|elma ağaçtan ırak düşmez}}.}}—"An apple does not fall far from its tree").

Turkish now has an alphabet suited to the sounds of the language: the spelling is largely phonemic, with one letter corresponding to each [[Social:Phoneme|phoneme]].<ref name="KerslakeGoksel2014">{{cite book|author1=Celia Kerslake|author2=Asli Goksel|title=Turkish: An Essential Grammar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-DbJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA12|date=11 June 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-134-04218-0|page=12|access-date=11 June 2018|archive-date=15 January 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115123307/https://books.google.com/books?id=-DbJAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA12|url-status=live}}</ref> Most of the letters are used approximately as in English, the main exceptions being {{angbr|c}}, which denotes {{IPA|[dʒ]}} ({{angbr|j}} being used for the {{IPA|[ʒ]}} found in Persian and European loans); and the undotted {{angbr|ı}}, representing {{IPA|[ɯ]}}. As in German, {{angbr|ö}} and {{angbr|ü}} represent {{IPA|[ø]}} and {{IPA|[y]}}. The letter {{angbr|ğ}}, in principle, denotes {{IPA|[ɣ]}} but has the property of lengthening the preceding vowel and assimilating any subsequent vowel. The letters {{angbr|ş}} and {{angbr|ç}} represent {{IPA|[ʃ]}} and {{IPA|[tʃ]}}, respectively. A circumflex is written over back vowels following {{angbr|k}} and {{angbr|g}} when these consonants represent {{IPA|[c]}} and {{IPA|[ɟ]}}—almost exclusively in Arabic and Persian [[Social:Loanword|loans]].{{efn|In these cases the circumflex conveys information about the preceding consonant rather than the vowel over which it is written.}}<ref name=lewis2001/>{{rp|3–7}}

The Turkish alphabet consists of 29 letters (q, w, x omitted and ç, ş, ğ, ı, ö, ü added); the complete list is:
:''a, b, c, ç, d, e, f, g, ğ, h, ı, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, ö, p, r, s, ş, t, u, ü, v, y'', and ''z'' (Capital of ''i'' is ''İ'' and lowercase ''I'' is ''ı''.)

The specifically Turkish letters and spellings described above are illustrated in this table:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Turkish spelling
!Pronunciation
!Meaning
|-
|{{lang|tr|Cağaloğlu}}
|{{IPA|ˈdʒaːɫoːɫu}}
|[İstanbul district]
|-
|{{lang|tr|çalıştığı}}
|{{IPA|tʃaɫɯʃtɯː}}
|where/that (s)he works/worked
|-
|{{lang|tr|müjde}}
|{{IPA|myʒˈde}}
|good news
|-
|{{lang|tr|lazım}}
|{{IPA|laːˈzɯm}}
|necessary
|-
|{{lang|tr|mahkûm}}
|{{IPA|mahˈcum}}
|condemned
|}

== Sample ==
''Dostlar Beni Hatırlasın'' by Âşık Veysel Şatıroğlu (1894–1973), an ashik and highly regarded poet in the Turkish folk literature tradition.

{| border="0" style="width:100%; font-size:115%; text-align:center;"
|-
! style="width:25%;"|Orthography
! style="width:35%;"|IPA
! style="width:40%;"|Translation
|-
|{{lang|tr|Ben giderim adım kalır}}
|{{IPA|bæn ɟid̪e̞ɾim äd̪ɯm käɫɯɾ}}
|I depart, my name remains
|-
|{{lang|tr|Dostlar beni hatırlasın}}
|{{IPA|d̪o̞st̪ɫäɾ be̞ni hätɯɾɫäsɯn}}
|May friends remember me
|-
|{{lang|tr|Düğün olur bayram gelir}}
|{{IPA|d̪yjyn o̞ɫuɾ bäjɾäm ɟe̞liɾ}}
|There are weddings, there are feasts
|-
|{{lang|tr|Dostlar beni hatırlasın}}
|{{IPA|d̪o̞st̪ɫäɾ be̞ni hätɯɾɫäsɯn}}
|May friends remember me
|-
|<br />
|-
|{{lang|tr|Can kafeste durmaz uçar}}
|{{IPA|d͡ʒäŋ käfe̞st̪e̞ d̪uɾmäz ut͡ʃäɾ}}
|The soul won't stay caged, it flies away
|-
|{{lang|tr|Dünya bir han konan göçer}}
|{{IPA|d̪ynjä biɾ häŋ ko̞nän ɟø̞t͡ʃæɾ}}
|The world is an inn, residents depart
|-
|{{lang|tr|Ay dolanır yıllar geçer}}
|{{IPA|äj d̪o̞ɫänɯɾ jɯɫːäɾ ɟe̞t͡ʃæɾ}}
|The moon wanders, years pass by
|-
|{{lang|tr|Dostlar beni hatırlasın}}
|{{IPA|d̪o̞st̪ɫäɾ be̞ni hätɯɾɫäsɯn}}
|May friends remember me
|-
|<br />
|-
|{{lang|tr|Can bedenden ayrılacak}}
|{{IPA|d͡ʒän be̞d̪ænd̪æn äjɾɯɫäd͡ʒäk}}
|The soul will leave the body
|-
|{{lang|tr|Tütmez baca yanmaz ocak}}
|{{IPA|t̪yt̪mæz bäd͡ʒä jänmäz o̞d͡ʒäk}}
|The chimney won't smoke, furnace won't burn
|-
|{{lang|tr|Selam olsun kucak kucak}}
|{{IPA|se̞läːm o̞ɫsuŋ kud͡ʒäk kud͡ʒäk}}
|Goodbye goodbye to you all
|-
|{{lang|tr|Dostlar beni hatırlasın}}
|{{IPA|d̪o̞st̪ɫäɾ be̞ni hätɯɾɫäsɯn}}
|May friends remember me
|-
|<br />
|-
|{{lang|tr|Açar solar türlü çiçek}}
|{{IPA|ät͡ʃäɾ so̞läɾ t̪yɾly t͡ʃit͡ʃe̞c}}
|Various flowers bloom and fade
|-
|{{lang|tr|Kimler gülmüş kim gülecek}}
|{{IPA|cimlæɾ ɟylmyʃ cim ɟyle̞d͡ʒe̞c}}
|Someone laughed, someone will laugh
|-
|{{lang|tr|Murat yalan ölüm gerçek}}
|{{IPA|muɾät jäɫän ø̞lym ɟæɾt͡ʃe̞c}}
|Wishes are lies, death is real
|-
|{{lang|tr|Dostlar beni hatırlasın}}
|{{IPA|d̪o̞st̪ɫäɾ be̞ni hätɯɾɫäsɯn}}
|May friends remember me
|-
|<br />
|-
|{{lang|tr|Gün ikindi akşam olur}}
|{{IPA|ɟyn icindi äkʃäm o̞ɫuɾ}}
|Morning and afternoon turn to night
|-
|{{lang|tr|Gör ki başa neler gelir}}
|{{IPA|ɟø̞ɾ ci bäʃä ne̞læɾ ɟe̞liɾ}}
|And many things happen to a person anyway
|-
|{{lang|tr|Veysel gider adı kalır}}
|{{IPA|ʋe̞jsæl ɟidæɾ äd̪ɯ käɫɯɾ}}
|Veysel departs, his name remains
|-
|{{lang|tr|Dostlar beni hatırlasın}}
|{{IPA|d̪o̞st̪ɫäɾ be̞ni hätɯɾɫäsɯn}}
|May friends remember me
|}

== Turkish computer keyboard ==
[[File:Turkish Q computer keyboard.jpg|thumb|right|A Turkish computer keyboard with Q (QWERTY) layout]]
Turkish language uses two standardised keyboard layouts, known as Turkish Q (QWERTY) and Turkish F, with Turkish Q being the most common.

== See also ==
* [[Unsolved:Sun Language Theory|Sun Language Theory]]
* Turkish name
* Turkish Sign Language
* List of English words of Turkic origin
* List of Turkish exonyms
* Öztürkçe
* [[Social:Languages used on the Internet|Languages used on the Internet]]
* Turkish bird language

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

== References ==
{{reflist|refs=

<!-- Not in use
*<ref name=kuribayashi-2012>{{cite journal |last1=Kuribayashi |first1=Yuu |title=Transitivity in Turkish: A study of valence orientation |journal=Asian and African Languages and Linguistics |date=2012 |volume=7 |pages=39–51 |url=http://repository.tufs.ac.jp/bitstream/10108/73105/1/aall7_4.pdf}}</ref>
Not in use-->

<!-- Not in use
*<ref name=cyprus>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Cyprus | url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Cyprus#toc33843| encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica | year=2016 }}</ref>
Not in use-->

*<ref name=cyprus-eu>{{citation|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/world/what-in-the-world/eu-official-languages.html|title=As the E.U.'s Language Roster Swells, So Does the Burden|work={{wipe|The New York Times}}|date=4 January 2017|access-date=17 March 2017|archive-date=28 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191028230241/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/04/world/what-in-the-world/eu-official-languages.html|url-status=live}}</ref>
*<ref name=greece>{{cite web |url=https://www.hri.org/MFA/foreign/musminen.htm |title=The Muslim Minority of Greek Thrace |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170701074825/http://www.hri.org/MFA/foreign/musminen.htm |archive-date=2017-07-01 }}</ref>
*<ref name=iraq>{{cite encyclopedia | title=Iraq | url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Iraq/Arabs#toc22939 | encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica | year=2016 | access-date=2017-03-25 | archive-date=2017-10-31 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171031063539/https://www.britannica.com/place/Iraq/Arabs#toc22939 | url-status=live }}</ref>
*<ref name=kosovo>{{cite encyclopedia| title=Kosovo| url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Kosovo#toc296713| encyclopedia=Encyclopedia Britannica| year=2016| access-date=2017-03-25| archive-date=2015-06-19| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150619045343/https://www.britannica.com/place/Kosovo#toc296713| url-status=live}}</ref>
*<ref name=sabah-kosovo>{{cite web| url=https://www.dailysabah.com/europe/2015/07/09/kosovo-starts-using-turkish-as-fifth-official-language-in-documents| title=Kosovo starts using Turkish as fifth official language in documents| website=Daily Sabah| date=9 July 2015| access-date=25 March 2017| archive-date=26 March 2017| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170326052026/https://www.dailysabah.com/europe/2015/07/09/kosovo-starts-using-turkish-as-fifth-official-language-in-documents| url-status=live}}</ref>
}}

===Sources===
* {{cite journal|last=Bazin|first=Louis|title=Turcs et Sogdiens: Les Enseignements de L'Inscription de Bugut (Mongolie), Mélanges Linguistiques Offerts à Émile Benveniste|journal=Collection Linguistique, Publiée Par la Société de Linguistique de Paris|issue=LXX|year=1975|pages=37–45|language=fr}}
* {{cite book|title=Encyclopaedia Britannica, Expo 70 Edition Vol 12|publisher=William Benton |year=1970}}
* {{cite book|last=Ergin|first=Muharrem|title=Orhun Abideleri|publisher=Boğaziçi Yayınları|year=1980|isbn=0-19-517726-6|language=tr}}
* {{Cite book|last=Ishjatms|first=N.|chapter=Nomads In Eastern Central Asia|title=History of civilizations of Central Asia|publisher=UNESCO Publishing|date=October 1996|volume=2|isbn=92-3-102846-4}}
* {{cite web |author=Vaux, Bert |title=Hemshinli: The Forgotten Black Sea Armenians |publisher=[[Organization:Harvard University|Harvard University]] |url=http://www.uwm.edu/~vaux/hamshen.pdf |access-date=2007-04-24 |year=2001 |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070315154048/http://www.uwm.edu/~vaux/hamshen.pdf |archive-date=March 15, 2007 }}
'''On-line sources'''
* {{cite web|author=Center for Studies on Turkey, University of Essen|publisher=Turkish Industrialists' and Businessmen's Association|url=http://www.tusiad.org/haberler/basin/ab/9.pdf|title=The European Turks: Gross Domestic Product, Working Population, Entrepreneurs and Household Data|access-date=2007-01-06|year=2003| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20051204091302/http://www.tusiad.org/haberler/basin/ab/9.pdf| archive-date = December 4, 2005}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.nisanyansozluk.com|title=Turkish Etymological Dictionary online|access-date=2007-09-11|year=2006|publisher=Sevan Nişanyan|language=tr}}
* {{cite web|publisher=UCLA International Institute, Center for World Languages|url=http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=67&menu=004|title=Language Materials Project: Turkish|access-date=2007-04-26|date=February 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071011180149/http://www.lmp.ucla.edu/Profile.aspx?LangID=67&menu=004|archive-date=2007-10-11|url-status=dead}}
* {{cite web|author=Turkish Language Association|url=http://www.tdk.gov.tr/TR/BelgeGoster.aspx?F6E10F8892433CFFAAF6AA849816B2EF2858DA18F4388CDD|title=Türk Dil Kurumu – Tarihçe (History of the Turkish Language Association)|access-date=2007-03-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070316024438/http://www.tdk.gov.tr/TR/BelgeGoster.aspx?F6E10F8892433CFFAAF6AA849816B2EF2858DA18F4388CDD <!--Added by H3llBot-->|archive-date=2007-03-16|language=tr}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.tdk.gov.tr/TR/BelgeGoster.aspx?F6E10F8892433CFFAAF6AA849816B2EF1A46C5FBFA979D0C |title=Türkçe Sözlük (2005)'teki Sözlerin Kökenlerine Ait Sayısal Döküm (Numerical list on the origin of words in ''Türkçe Sözlük (2005)'') |access-date=2007-03-21 |year=2005 |publisher=[[Organization:Turkish Language Association|Turkish Language Association]] |language=tr |url-status = dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070301064559/http://www.tdk.gov.tr/TR/BelgeGoster.aspx?F6E10F8892433CFFAAF6AA849816B2EF1A46C5FBFA979D0C |archive-date=March 1, 2007 }} 
* {{cite web|publisher=Turkish Studies: International Periodical For The Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic Volume 7/3|url=http://www.turkishstudies.net/Makaleler/1934555583_85Kad%c4%b1u%20Spartak_S-1593-1603.pdf|title=Spartak KADIU : Türkçede zaman ve kip kavramı ve i-ek eylemin fonksiyonu üzerine|access-date=2013-01-15|language=tr|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130313043006/http://www.turkishstudies.net/Makaleler/1934555583_85Kad%c4%b1u%20Spartak_S-1593-1603.pdf|archive-date=2013-03-13|url-status=dead}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book|last=Eyüboğlu|first=İsmet Zeki|title=Türk Dilinin Etimoloji Sözlüğü |trans-title=Etymological Dictionary of the Turkish Language|publisher=Sosyal Yayınları, İstanbul|year=1991|isbn=978975-7384-72-4 |language=tr}}
* {{cite book |editor-last=Özel |editor-first=Sevgi |editor2=Haldun Özen |editor3=Ali Püsküllüoğlu |title=Atatürk'ün Türk Dil Kurumu ve Sonrası |trans-title=Atatürk's Turkish Language Association and its Legacy |publisher=Bilgi Yayınevi, Ankara|year=1986|oclc=18836678|language=tr}}
* {{cite book|last=Püsküllüoğlu|first=Ali|title=Arkadaş Türkçe Sözlük |trans-title=Arkadaş Turkish Dictionary |publisher=Arkadaş Yayınevi, Ankara|year=2004|isbn=975-509-053-3|language=tr}}
*Rezvani, B. "Türkçe Mi: Türkçe’deki İrani (Farsca, Dimilce, Kurmançca) Orijinli kelimeler Sözlüğü.[Turkish title (roughly translated): Is this Turkish? An etymological dictionary of originally Iranic (Persian, Zazaki, and Kurmanji Kurdish) words]." (2006).

== External links ==
* {{Curlie|Reference/Dictionaries/World_Languages/T/Turkish|Turkish dictionaries}}
* {{Curlie|Science/Social_Sciences/Linguistics/Languages/Natural/Altaic/Turkic/Turkish|Turkish language}}
* [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Turkish_Swadesh_list Swadesh list of Turkish basic vocabulary words] (from Wiktionary's [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Swadesh_lists Swadesh-list appendix])
* [http://www.umich.edu/~turkish/langres_tr.html Turkish Language: Resources – University of Michigan]

{{Turkic languages}}
{{Languages of the Caucasus}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turkish Language}}
[[Category:Agglutinative languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Russia]]
[[Category:Subject–object–verb languages]]
[[Category:Vowel-harmony languages]]

{{Sourceattribution|Turkish language}}